The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger. His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. In Psalm 103:8, the Hebrew word is arekh (H750): It simply means long. Joined to the next word it makes a Hebrew phrase that is, word for word, ‘long of nostrils’. The Berean puts it as “slow to anger”.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind the word “slow” in this verse is the Hebrew word arekh (said ah-RAKE).
It simply means long. Joined to the next word it makes a Hebrew phrase that is, word for word, ‘long of nostrils’. The Berean puts it as “slow to anger”.
This form, erekh, is a describing word tied to the word after it: ‘long of’. That next word, appayim, is the word for ‘nose’ in a form used for pairs: nostrils.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is “slow” 11 of its 15 times, nearly always in “slow to anger”:
Word by word
| רַחוּם | וְחַנּוּן | יְהוָה | אֶרֶךְ | אַפַּיִם | וְרַב | חָסֶד |
| merciful | and · gracious | the LORD | long of | nostrils | and · great of | mercy |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 103 begins with a man talking to himself: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds” (Psalm 103:2). Then he lists them, starting with the one a guilty person needs most: “He who forgives all your iniquities” (Psalm 103:3). This verse sits in the middle of that list, and it is a quotation. It is how the LORD described himself to Moses: “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). The word behind “slow” is arekh, simply ‘long’. Joined to the next word it makes a picture: ‘long of nostrils’. In Hebrew, anger shows in the nose, in hard breathing. To be long of nostrils is to take a long, slow breath before anger comes. That is how this verse describes God. The same words come back again and again in Scripture, like a refrain people knew by heart. Jonah prayed them, almost as a complaint: “I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger” (Jonah 4:2). Nehemiah prayed them over a people who had failed: “You are a forgiving God” (Nehemiah 9:17). Think of the difference between a short fuse and a long one: one goes off at the smallest spark, the other leaves room for mercy. If you are afraid God is angry with you, this verse does not say that wrong doesn’t matter. It tells you what kind of God you are dealing with: one who is slow to anger and full of loving devotion.
What the original says
Behind the word “anger” in this verse is the Hebrew word aph (said AHF).
Its first meaning is the nose, the nostrils. Strong’s says it came to mean anger ‘from the rapid breathing in passion’: the hard breathing of someone who is angry.
This form, be’appo, is three pieces in one word: ‘in’, ‘anger’, ‘his’. Word for word the verse begins: ‘For a moment in his anger; life in his favor’. The Berean puts it as “His anger is fleeting”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is “anger” 174 times and “wrath” 12 times. It is also “nostrils”, as in “the blast of the breath of His nostrils” (2 Samuel 22:16):
Word by word
| כִּי | רֶגַע | בְּאַפּוֹ | חַיִּים | בִּרְצוֹנוֹ |
| for | a moment | in · anger · his | life | in · favour · his |
Original form
What this tells us
David is looking back on a time he thought he would die: “O LORD my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me” (Psalm 30:2), and “O LORD, You pulled me up from Sheol” (Psalm 30:3). Then he turns to everyone listening: “Sing to the LORD, O you His saints, and praise His holy name” (Psalm 30:4). This verse is the reason they can sing. The word for “anger” is aph, which first means the nose, the nostrils; Strong’s says it came to mean anger from the hard breathing of someone who is angry. David sets two lengths of time side by side. His anger is “fleeting”, in Hebrew ‘a moment’. His favor “lasts a lifetime”. Then he gives a picture everyone knows: “Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.” A long night is real, and the psalm does not hurry past it. But the night is not the whole story. Later in the same psalm David says, “You turned my mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30:11). Lamentations, written in a far darker time, says of the LORD’s mercies, “They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:23). If you are in the night part of this verse, it does not ask you to pretend it is morning. It tells you that God’s anger is not the longest thing about him. His favor is.
What the original says
Behind the word “angry” in this verse is the Hebrew word anaph (said ah-NAHF).
It means to breathe hard, and so to be angry. Strong’s says aph, the word for “anger” in Psalm 30:5, comes from this word, and here the two stand in one verse.
This form, anafta, means ‘you were angry’: something in the past. Three words later comes aph: “Your anger has turned away”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is “angry” 13 of its 14 times, as in “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry” (Psalm 2:12):
Word by word
| יְהוָה | כִּי | אָנַפְתָּ | בִּי | יָשֹׁב | אַפְּךָ |
| LORD | though | you were angry | with · me | turns back | anger · your |
Original form
What this tells us
Isaiah has just described a coming day when God will gather his scattered people: “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel” (Isaiah 11:12). Chapter 12 is the song they will sing then. It is given ahead of time, with the words “In that day you will say”, and it begins: “O LORD, I will praise You.” The word for “You were angry” is anaph: to breathe hard, to be angry. The song does not pretend God was never angry. It admits it: “Although You were angry with me”. Then comes the turn: “Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me.” The anger is told as something past; the comfort is what remains. The next verse goes further: “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid” (Isaiah 12:2). The one who was angry has become the one who saves. Hosea hears God say something close to this about his people: “My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!” (Hosea 11:8). Christians explain how God’s anger turns away in different ways, many of them pointing to the cross, but this song simply rejoices that it has. You are allowed to sing this song before you feel it. It was written in advance, for people who were still waiting for that day to come.
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind the words “harbor His anger” in this verse is the Hebrew word natar (said nah-TAR).
It means to guard, to keep. Strong’s says that, figuratively, it means to hold on to anger: to keep it and nurse it.
This form, yittor, means ‘he will keep’. The Hebrew has no word for ‘anger’ here: word for word it is ‘and not forever will he keep’. The Berean supplies “His anger” to make the sense plain in English.
In the Berean Standard Bible, this word is found in only 8 verses, and it is put a different way almost every time. In Leviticus 19:18 it is “bear a grudge”:
Word by word
| לֹא | לָנֶצַח | יָרִיב | וְלֹא | לְעוֹלָם | יִטּוֹר |
| not | to · always | he will contend | and · not | to · forever | he will keep |
Original form
What this tells us
This is the same psalm as Psalm 103:8, one line further on. David has just said that the LORD is “slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion” (Psalm 103:8). Now he says what that looks like over time, and the line after this one goes further still: “He has not dealt with us according to our sins or repaid us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). The word behind “harbor” is natar: to keep, to guard. Strong’s says that, used figuratively, it means to hold on to anger, to keep it and nurse it. The Hebrew does not even need the word ‘anger’ here; word for word it is ‘and not forever will he keep’. The two halves of the verse say the same thing twice, as Hebrew poetry often does. The verses that follow give two pictures of distance: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:11), and “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Think of someone who keeps a list of every wrong you ever did, ready to read it out at the next argument. This verse says the LORD is not like that. If you live as though God is still holding something against you, this verse speaks plainly to you: he does not harbor his anger forever.
What the original says
Behind the word “delights” in this verse is the Hebrew word chafets (said khah-FATES).
It means to delight in, to take pleasure in, to want. Strong’s gives its first sense as ‘to incline to’: to lean toward something.
This form, chafets, says what the LORD is like: He “delights in loving devotion”. The word for loving devotion is chesed, which Strong’s defines first as ‘kindness’.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is “delight” 35 of its 73 times, counting its other forms, as in “I delight to do Your will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8):
Word by word
| לֹא | הֶחֱזִיק | לָעַד | אַפּוֹ | כִּי | חָפֵץ | חֶסֶד |
| not | he holds | to · forever | anger · his | for | delights in | mercy |
Original form
What this tells us
Micah has spent most of his book warning his people about judgment. Near the end he speaks as one of them, honest about his own failure: “Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light” (Micah 7:8). Then the book closes with a question that is really praise: “Who is a God like You”. The word for “delights” is chafets: to take pleasure in, to want, to lean toward something. Micah gives the reason God’s anger does not last. He “does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion”. What God leans toward, what he wants, is loving devotion. The next verse turns this into pictures: “He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). Think of throwing something into deep water: you do not plan to fish it out again. Micah ends by recalling a promise as old as Abraham, “as You swore to our fathers from the days of old” (Micah 7:20). God’s mercy is not a new mood. It is who he has always been. When you wonder whether God really wants to forgive you, this verse answers with what he himself delights in: not anger, but loving devotion.
What the original says
Behind the word “anger” in this verse is the Hebrew word qetsef (said KEH-tsef).
Strong’s gives its first sense as a splinter, chipped off; figuratively, rage. In the Old Testament it is mostly used of God’s wrath.
This form, qetsef, is a noun. The word before it, shetsef, ‘an outburst’, is found only here; the Berean puts the two together as “a surge of anger”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is “wrath” 19 times and “anger” 5 times:
Word by word
| בְּשֶׁצֶף | קֶצֶף | הִסְתַּרְתִּי | פָנַי | רֶגַע | מִמֵּךְ | וּבְחֶסֶד | עוֹלָם | רִחַמְתִּיךְ |
| in · an outburst of | wrath | I hid | face · my | a moment | from · you | and · with · kindness | everlasting | I have mercy · on you |
Original form
What this tells us
Isaiah speaks to a people who feel abandoned, like a woman left alone. God promises, “you will forget the shame of your youth and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood” (Isaiah 54:4), and he speaks as the husband who returns: “For your husband is your Maker” (Isaiah 54:5). Just before this verse he says, “For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back” (Isaiah 54:7). The word for “anger” here is qetsef: wrath, a sudden rage. Strong’s gives its first sense as a splinter chipped off. Isaiah does not soften it: “In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment”. But he measures it. The anger lasts “for a moment”; the kindness is “everlasting”. The next verses set a promise beside the oldest picture of judgment: “For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth” (Isaiah 54:9). And then: “Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you” (Isaiah 54:10). Mountains are the most solid things a person can see, and God says his kindness will outlast them. If it feels as though God has hidden his face from you, this verse does not deny the feeling. It tells you what lasts longer than the moment: the everlasting kindness of the LORD your Redeemer.
What the original says
Behind the word “wrath” in this verse is the Greek word orgē (said or-GAY).
It is the main New Testament word for wrath. Strong’s describes it as a strong passion, and ‘by implication punishment’.
This form, orgēn, comes after eis, ‘to’: word for word, ‘appointed us to wrath’. Paul says God has not done that, but appointed us “to obtain salvation”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is “wrath” 26 times and “anger” 8 times:
Word by word
| οὐκ | ἔθετο | ἡμᾶς | ὁ | θεὸς | εἰς | ὀργὴν | ἀλλὰ | εἰς | περιποίησιν | σωτηρίας |
| not | appointed | us | the | God | to | wrath | but | to | obtaining | of salvation |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul is writing to young believers in Thessalonica about the day of the Lord, and they are unsettled about it. Earlier in the letter he described them as people waiting for Jesus, “our deliverer from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). In this verse he tells them plainly where they stand. The word for “wrath” is orgē, the main New Testament word for God’s wrath. Paul does not say that there is no wrath. He says what God has and has not appointed for those who belong to Christ: “God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The next verse gives the reason in one sentence: “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). Paul says the same in Romans: “how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!” (Romans 5:9), and “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Then he turns at once to how they treat one another: “Therefore encourage and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Knowing where they stand is meant to free them to care for each other. If you belong to Christ and still live braced for God’s wrath, this verse says what you were appointed to: not wrath, but salvation, and a life lived together with him.
Behind "anger" are 23 different words
Your English Bible says "anger" 334 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
Isaiah 12:1 was written for someone to say. Read it slowly, as your own words:
Name it
What makes you feel God is angry with you? Write it plainly, then read Psalm 103:10 beside it: “He has not dealt with us according to our sins.”
Carry with you
Psalm 30:5 sets anger that is “fleeting” beside favor that “lasts a lifetime”. Which one are you living in today?
A note
If you can’t shake the feeling that God is angry with you, you’re not alone. Talking with a pastor or counselor can help.