Study Hebrew and open the Bible with fresh eyes
The Bible contains many famous stories in which the God of Israel is provoked to anger by the sins of his people. In many of these cases, the text says “his anger was kindled” (Job 19:11) against someone. Thankfully, the opposite reaction is also true of God, who is described as “slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6).
Is God really similar to an ordinary person with a temper? How can we make sense of this? In the original Hebrew the word for “anger” is aph which actually means “nostril”. So the phrase “his anger was kindled” in Hebrew literally means God was so angry “his nostrils burned”. The opposite “slow to anger” literally means “his nostrils were elongated” – allowing the heated anger to escape.
It is truly difficult to understand something as abstract and transcendent as God. Of course, the incorporeal God of Israel does not have nostrils! This is merely a metaphor used by the ancient Israelites to help them visualize God’s anger. Unfortunately, our modern Bible translations disguise these powerful metaphors with abstract language. Enroll in our online live Biblical Hebrew course and learn to appreciate the true richness of the Bible.
