Jonah 4:9

4:9 God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry ¹  about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry ²  as I could possibly be!” ³ 

Numbers 20:11-12

20:11 Then Moses raised his hand, and struck the rock twice with his staff. And water came out abundantly. So the community drank, and their beasts drank too.

The Lord’s Judgment

20:12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough ⁴  to show me as holy ⁵  before ⁶  the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” ⁷ 

Numbers 20:24

20:24 “Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors, ⁸  for he will not enter into the land I have given to the Israelites because both of you ⁹  rebelled against my word ¹⁰  at the waters of Meribah.

Psalms 106:32-33

106:32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,

and Moses suffered ¹¹  because of them,

106:33 for they aroused ¹²  his temper, ¹³ 

and he spoke rashly. ¹⁴ 

Micah 6:3

6:3 “My people, how have I wronged you? ¹⁵ 

How have I wearied you? Answer me!

Matthew 20:15

20:15 Am I not ¹⁶  permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁷ 

James 1:19-20

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹⁸  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. 1:20 For human ¹⁹  anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. ²⁰ 

[4:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Does it burn so thoroughly to you?” or “Does it burn rightly to you?” See note on this expression in v. 4.

[4:9]  ² tn Heb “It thoroughly burns to me” or “It rightly burns to me.”

[4:9]  ³ tn Heb “unto death.” The phrase עַד־מָוֶת (’ad-mavet, “unto death”) is an idiomatic expression meaning “to the extreme” or simply “extremely [angry]” (HALOT 563 s.v. מָוֶת 1.c). The noun מָוֶת (“death”) is often used as an absolute superlative with a negative sense, similar to the English expression “bored to death” (IBHS 267-69 §14.5). For example, “his soul was vexed to death” (לָמוּת, lamut) means that he could no longer endure it (Judg 16:16), and “love is as strong as death” (כַמָּוֶת, kammavet) means love is irresistible or exceedingly strong (Song 8:6). Here the expression “I am angry unto death” (עַד־מָוֶת) means that Jonah could not be more angry. Unfortunately, this idiomatic expression has gone undetected by virtually every other major English version to date (KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NJB, JPS, NJPS). The only English version that comes close to representing the idiom correctly is BBE: “I have a right to be truly angry.”

[20:12]  ⁴ tn Or “to sanctify me.”

[20:12]  ⁵ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.

[20:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[20:12]  ⁷ tn There is debate as to exactly what the sin of Moses was. Some interpreters think that the real sin might have been that he refused to do this at first, but that fact has been suppressed from the text. Some think the text was deliberately vague to explain why they could not enter the land without demeaning them. Others simply, and more likely, note that in Moses there was unbelief, pride, anger, impatience – disobedience.

[20:24]  ⁸ sn This is the standard poetic expression for death. The bones would be buried, often with the bones of relatives in the same tomb, giving rise to the expression.

[20:24]  ⁹ tn The verb is in the second person plural form, and so it is Moses and Aaron who rebelled, and so now because of that Aaron first and then Moses would die without going into the land.

[20:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “mouth.”

[106:32]  ¹¹ tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”

[106:33]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.

[106:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “his spirit.”

[106:33]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “My people, what have I done to you?”

[20:15]  ¹⁶ tc ‡ Before οὐκ (ouk, “[am I] not”) a number of significant witnesses read ἤ (h, “or”; e.g., א C W 085 Ë^1,13 33 and most others). Although in later Greek the οι in σοι (oi in soi) – the last word of v. 14 – would have been pronounced like ἤ, since ἤ is lacking in early mss (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since mss were probably copied predominantly by sight rather than by sound, even into the later centuries, the omission of ἤ cannot be accounted for as easily. Thus the shorter reading is most likely original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[20:15]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

[1:19]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[1:20]  ¹⁹ tn The word translated “human” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person” (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2), and in this context, contrasted with “God’s righteousness,” the point is “human” anger (not exclusively “male” anger).

[1:20]  ²⁰ sn God’s righteousness could refer to (1) God’s righteous standard, (2) the righteousness God gives, (3) righteousness before God, or (4) God’s eschatological righteousness (see P. H. Davids, James [NIGTC], 93, for discussion).