Topical Scripture

wrath

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"You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans." [EX 22:21-23]

"I see how stiff-necked this people is," continued the LORD to Moses. "Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation." But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, "Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth'? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'" So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. [EX 32:9-14]

Moses then turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, front and back; tablets that were made by God, having inscriptions on them that were engraved by God himself. Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "That sounds like a battle in the camp." But Moses answered, "It does not sound like cries of victory, nor does it sound like cries of defeat; the sounds that I hear are cries of revelry." As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses' wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain. Taking the calf they had made, he fused it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink. Moses asked Aaron, "What did this people ever do to you that you should lead them into so grave a sin?" Aaron replied, "Let not my lord be angry. You know well enough how prone the people are to evil. They said to me, 'Make us a god to be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.' So I told them, 'Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off.' They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out." When Moses realized that, to the scornful joy of their foes, Aaron had let the people run wild, he stood at the gate of the camp and cried, "Whoever is for the LORD, let him come to me!" All the Levites then rallied to him, and he told them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Put your sword on your hip, every one of you! Now go up and down the camp, from gate to gate, and slay your own kinsmen, your friends and neighbors!" The Levites carried out the command of Moses, and that day there fell about three thousand of the people. Then Moses said, "Today you have been dedicated to the LORD, for you were against your own sons and kinsmen, to bring a blessing upon yourselves this day." [EX 32:15-29]

Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not bare your heads or tear your garments, lest you bring not only death on yourselves but God's wrath also on the whole community. Your kinsmen, the rest of the house of Israel, shall mourn for those whom the LORD'S fire has smitten; but do not you go beyond the entry of the meeting tent, else you shall die; for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you." So they did as Moses told them. [LEV 10:6-7]

For the LORD had told Moses, "The tribe of Levi alone you shall not enroll nor include in the census along with the other Israelites. You are to give the Levites charge of the Dwelling of the commandments with all its equipment and all that belongs to it. It is they who shall carry the Dwelling with all its equipment and who shall be its ministers. They shall therefore camp around the Dwelling. When the Dwelling is to move on, the Levites shall take it down; when the Dwelling is to be pitched, it is the Levites who shall set it up. Any layman who comes near it shall be put to death. While the other Israelites shall camp by companies, each in his own division of the camp, the Levites shall camp around the Dwelling of the commandments. Otherwise God's wrath will strike the Israelite community. The Levites, then, shall have charge of the Dwelling of the commandments." All this the Israelites fulfilled as the LORD had commanded Moses. [NUM 1:48-54]

Now the people complained in the hearing of the LORD; and when he heard it his wrath flared up so that the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. But when the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died out. [NUM 11:1-2]

The LORD'S wrath flared up against the people, and he struck them with a very great plague. So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because it was there that the greedy people were buried. [Taken from NUM 11:33-34]

The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, "It is you who have slain the LORD'S people." But while the community was deliberating against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the meeting tent, and the cloud now covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the meeting tent, and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Depart from this community, that I may consume them at once." But they fell prostrate. Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and bring it quickly to the community to make atonement for them; for wrath has come forth from the LORD and the blow is falling." Obeying the orders of Moses, Aaron took his censer and ran in among the community, where the blow was already falling on the people. Then, as he offered the incense and made atonement for the people, standing there between the living and the dead, the scourge was checked. Yet fourteen thousand seven hundred died from the scourge, in addition to those who died because of Korah. When the scourge had been checked, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the meeting tent. [NUM 17:6-15]

The LORD said to Aaron, "You and your sons as well as the other members of your ancestral house shall be responsible for the sanctuary; but the responsibility of the priesthood shall rest on you and your sons alone. Bring with you also your other kinsmen of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, as your associates and assistants, while you and your sons are in front of the tent of the commandments. They shall look after your persons and the whole tent; however, they shall not come near the sacred vessels or the altar, lest both they and you die. As your associates they shall have charge of all the work connected with the meeting tent. But no layman shall come near you. You shall have charge of the sanctuary and of the altar, that wrath may not fall again upon the Israelites. Remember, it is I who have taken your kinsmen, the Levites, from the body of the Israelites; they are a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD for the service of the meeting tent. But only you and your sons are to have charge of performing the priestly functions in whatever concerns the altar and the room within the veil. I give you the priesthood as a gift. Any layman who draws near shall be put to death." [NUM 18:1-7] 

When Israel thus submitted to the rites of Baal of Peor, the LORD'S anger flared up against Israel, and he said to Moses, "Gather all the leaders of the people, and hold a public execution of the guilty ones before the LORD, that his blazing wrath may be turned away from Israel." [NUM 25:3-4]

But Moses answered the Gadites and Reubenites: "Are your kinsmen, then, to engage in war, while you remain here? Why do you wish to discourage the Israelites from crossing to the land the LORD has given them? That is just what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to reconnoiter the land. They went up to the Wadi Eshcol and reconnoitered the land, then so discouraged the Israelites that they would not enter the land the LORD had given them. At that time the wrath of the LORD flared up, and he swore, 'Because they have not followed me unreservedly, none of these men of twenty years or more who have come up from Egypt shall ever see this country I promised under oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, except the Kenizzite Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun, who have followed the LORD unreservedly.' So in his anger with the Israelites the LORD made them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD had died out. And now here you are, a brood of sinners, rising up in your fathers' place to add still more to the LORD'S blazing wrath against the Israelites. If you turn away from following him, he will make them stay still longer in the desert, and so you will bring about the ruin of this whole nation." [NUM 32:6-15]

The LORD, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear. You shall not follow other gods, such as those of the surrounding nations, lest the wrath of the LORD, your God, flare up against you and he destroy you from the face of the land; for the LORD, your God, who is in your midst, is a jealous God. [DEUT 6:13-15]

"When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, and dislodges great nations before you - the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites: seven nations more numerous and powerful than you - and when the LORD, your God, delivers them up to you and you defeat them, you shall doom them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons. For they would turn your sons from following me to serving other gods, and then the wrath of the LORD would flare up against you and quickly destroy you." [DEUT 7:1-4]

"When I had come down again from the blazing, fiery mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in both my hands, I saw how you had sinned against the LORD, your God: you had already turned aside from the way which the LORD had pointed out to you by making for yourselves a molten calf! Raising the two tablets with both hands I threw them from me and broke them before your eyes. Then, as before, I lay prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking, because of all the sin you had committed in the sight of the LORD and the evil you had done to provoke him. For I dreaded the fierce anger of the LORD against you: his wrath would destroy you. Yet once again the LORD listened to me. With Aaron, too, the LORD was deeply angry, and would have killed him had I not prayed for him also at that time." [DEUT 9:15-20]

If, then, you truly heed my commandments which I enjoin on you today, loving and serving the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, I will give the seasonal rain to your land, the early rain and the late rain, that you may have your grain, wine and oil to gather in; and I will bring forth grass in your fields for your animals. Thus you may eat your fill. But be careful lest your heart be so lured away that you serve other gods and worship them. For then the wrath of the LORD will flare up against you and he will close up the heavens, so that no rain will fall, and the soil will not yield its crops, and you will soon perish from the good land he is giving you. [DEUT 11:13-17]

You shall not retain anything that is doomed, that the blazing wrath of the LORD may die down and he may show you mercy and in his mercy for you may multiply you as he promised your fathers on oath; because you have heeded the voice of the LORD, your God, keeping all his commandments which I enjoin on you today, doing what is right in his sight. [DEUT 13:18-19]

"You know in what surroundings we lived in the land of Egypt and what we passed by in the nations we traversed, and you saw the loathsome idols of wood and stone, of gold and silver, that they possess. Let there be, then, no man or woman, no clan or tribe among you, who would now turn away their hearts from the LORD, our God, to go and serve these pagan gods! Let there be no root that would bear such poison and wormwood among you. If any such person, upon hearing the words of this curse, should beguile himself into thinking that he can safely persist in his stubbornness of heart, as though to sweep away both the watered soil and the parched ground, the LORD will never consent to pardon him. Instead, the LORD'S wrath and jealousy will flare up against that man, and every curse mentioned in this book will alight on him. The LORD will blot out his name from under the heavens and will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for doom, in keeping with all the curses of the covenant inscribed in this book of the law. Future generations, your own descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigners who will come here from far-off lands, when they see the calamities of this land and the ills with which the LORD has smitten it - all its soil being nothing but sulphur and salt, a burnt-out waste, unsown and unfruitful, without a blade of grass, destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his furious wrath - they and all the nations will ask, 'Why has the LORD dealt thus with this land? Why this fierce outburst of wrath?' And the answer will be, 'Because they forsook the covenant which the LORD, the God of their fathers, had made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they went and served other gods and adored them, gods whom they did not know and whom he had not let fall to their lot: that is why the LORD was angry with this land and brought on it all the imprecations listed in this book; in his furious wrath and tremendous anger the LORD uprooted them from their soil and cast them out into a strange land, where they are today.'" [DEUT 29:15-27]

"Since they have provoked me with their 'no-god' and angered me with their vain idols, I will provoke them with a 'no-people'; with a foolish nation I will anger them. For by my wrath a fire is enkindled that shall rage to the depths of the nether world, Consuming the earth with its yield, and licking with flames the roots of the mountains. I will spend on them woe upon woe and exhaust all my arrows against them: Emaciating hunger and consuming fever and bitter pestilence, And the teeth of wild beasts I will send among them, with the venom of reptiles gliding in the dust. Snatched away by the sword in the street and by sheer terror at home Shall be the youth and the maiden alike, the nursing babe as well as the hoary old man." [DEUT 32:21-25]

This is the blessing which Moses, the man of God, pronounced upon the Israelites before he died. He said: "The LORD came from Sinai and dawned on his people from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and advanced from Meribath-kadesh, While at his right hand a fire blazed forth and his wrath devastated the nations. But all his holy ones were in his hand; they followed at his feet and he bore them up on his pinions. A law he gave to us; he made the community of Jacob his domain, and he became king of his darling. When the chiefs of the people assembled and the tribes of Israel came together." [Taken from DEUT 33:1-5]

"If you consider the land you now possess unclean, cross over to the land the LORD possesses, where the Dwelling of the LORD stands, and share that with us. But do not rebel against the LORD, nor involve us in rebellion, by building an altar of your own in addition to the altar of the LORD, our God. When Achan, son of Zerah, violated the ban, did not wrath fall upon the entire community of Israel? Though he was but a single man, he did not perish alone for his guilt!" [JOSH 22:19-20]

In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried out to my God; From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry reached his ears. "The earth swayed and quaked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and shook when his wrath flared up. Smoke rose from his nostrils, and a devouring fire from his mouth; he kindled coals into flame. He inclined the heavens and came down, with dark clouds under his feet. He mounted a cherub and flew, borne on the wings of the wind. He made darkness the shelter about him, with spattering rain and thickening clouds. From the brightness of his presence coals were kindled to flame. The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High gave forth his voice. He sent forth arrows to put them to flight; he flashed lightning and routed them. Then the wellsprings of the sea appeared, the foundations of the earth were laid bare, At the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the wind of his wrath. He reached out from on high and grasped me; he drew me out of the deep waters. He rescued me from my mighty enemy, from my foes, who were too powerful for me." [2SAM 22:7-18]

The wrath against Israel was so great that they gave up the siege and returned to their own land. [Taken from 2KGS 3:27]

David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab, and said to them: "You, the heads of the levitical families, must sanctify yourselves along with your brethren and bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place which I have prepared for it. Because you were not with us the first time, the wrath of the LORD our God burst upon us, for we did not seek him aright." Accordingly, the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel. [1CHRON 15:11-14]

Joab, son of Zeruiah, began to take the census, but he did not complete it, for because of it wrath fell upon Israel. Therefore the number did not enter into the book of chronicles of King David. [1CHRON 27:24]

After Rehoboam had consolidated his rule and had become powerful, he abandoned the law of the LORD, he and all Israel with him. Thus it happened that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem, for they had been unfaithful to the LORD. He came up with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and there was no counting the army that came with him from Egypt - Libyans, Sukkites and Ethiopians. They captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the commanders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them: "Thus says the LORD: 'You have abandoned me, and therefore I have abandoned you to the power of Shishak.'" However, the commanders of Israel and the king humbled themselves saying, "The LORD is just." When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah: "Because they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them; I will give them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem through Shishak. But they shall be his servants, that they may know what it is to serve me and what it is to serve earthly kingdoms." [2CHRON 12:1-8]

King Jehoshaphat of Judah returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem. Jehu the seer, son of Hanani, met King Jehoshaphat and said to him: "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? For this reason, wrath is upon you from the LORD. Yet some good things are to be found in you, since you have removed the sacred poles from the land and have been determined to seek God." [2CHRON 19:1-3]

In Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat appointed some Levites and priests and some of the family heads of Israel to judge in the name of the LORD and to settle quarrels among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He gave them this command: "You shall act faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD. And in every dispute that your brethren living in their cities bring to you, whether it concerns bloodguilt or questions of law, command, statutes, or judgments, warn them lest they become guilty before the LORD and his wrath come upon you and your brethren. Do that and you shall be guiltless. See now, Amariah is high priest over you in everything that pertains to the LORD, and Zebadiah, son of Ishmael, is leader of the house of Judah in all that pertains to the king; and the Levites will be your officials. Act firmly, and the LORD will be with the good." [2CHRON 19:8-11]

After the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and the king then listened to them. They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols; and because of this crime of theirs, wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem. Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD, the people would not listen to their warnings. Then the spirit of God possessed Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He took his stand above the people and said to them: "God says, 'Why are you transgressing the LORD'S commands, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.'" [2CHRON 24:17-20]

We then questioned the elders, addressing to them the following words: 'Who issued the decree for you to build this house and raise this edifice?' We also asked them their names, to report them to you in a list of the men who are their leaders. This was their answer to us: 'We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house built here long years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. But because our fathers provoked the wrath of the God of heaven, he delivered them into the power of the Chaldean, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who destroyed this house and led the people captive to Babylon. However, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree for the rebuilding of this house of God.' [EZRA 5:9-13]

I, Artaxerxes the king, issue this decree to all the treasurers of West-of-Euphrates: Whatever Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requests of you, dispense to him accurately, within these limits: silver, one hundred talents; wheat, one hundred kors; wine, one hundred baths; oil, one hundred baths; salt, without limit. Let everything that is ordered by the God of heaven be carried out exactly for the house of the God of heaven, that wrath may not come upon the realm of the king and his sons. [EZRA 7:21-23]

Then I proclaimed a fast, there by the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to petition from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions. For I would have been ashamed to ask the king for troops and horsemen to protect us against enemies along the way, since we had said to the king, "The favoring hand of our God is upon all who seek him, but his mighty wrath is against all who forsake him." So we fasted, and prayed to our God for this, and our petition was granted. [EZRA 8:21-23]

I took the nobles of Judah to task, demanding of them: "What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this same way, with the result that our God has brought all this evil upon us and upon this city? Would you add to the wrath against Israel by once more profaning the sabbath?" When the shadows were falling on the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I ordered the doors to be closed and forbade them to be reopened till after the sabbath. I posted some of my own men at the gates so that no burden might enter on the sabbath day. The merchants and sellers of various kinds of merchandise spent the night once or twice outside Jerusalem, but then I warned them, saying to them: "Why do you spend the night alongside the wall? If you keep this up, I will lay hands on you!" From that time on, they did not return on the sabbath. Then I ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to go and watch the gates, so that the sabbath day might be kept holy. This, too, remember in my favor, O my God, and have mercy on me in accordance with your great mercy! [NEH 13:17-22]

When he had completed his plan, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, summoned Holofernes, general in chief of his forces, second to himself in command, and said to him: "Thus says the great king, the lord of all the earth: Go forth from my presence, take with you men of proven valor, a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry, and proceed against all the land of the West, because they did not comply with the order I issued. Tell them to have earth and water ready, for I will come against them in my wrath; I will cover all the land with the feet of my soldiers, to whom I will deliver them as spoils." [JDTH 2:4-7]

"You, the Lord, crush warfare; Lord is your name. Shatter their strength in your might, and crush their force in your wrath; for they have resolved to profane your sanctuary, to defile the tent where your glorious name resides, and to overthrow with iron the horns of your altar. See their pride, and send forth your wrath upon their heads. Give me, a widow, the strong hand to execute my plan. With the guile of my lips, smite the slave together with the ruler, the ruler together with his servant; crush their pride by the hand of a woman. Your strength is not in numbers, nor does your power depend upon stalwart men; but you are the God of the lowly, the helper of the oppressed, the supporter of the weak, the protector of the forsaken, the savior of those without hope. Please, please, God of my forefather, God of the heritage of Israel, Lord of heaven and earth, Creator of the waters, King of all you have created, hear my prayer!" [JDTH 9:8-12]

"As for Achior's speech in your council, we have heard of it. When the men of Bethulia spared him, he told them all he had said to you. So then, my lord and master, do not disregard his word, but bear it in mind, for it is true. For our people are not punished, nor does the sword prevail against them, except when they sin against their God. But now their guilt has caught up with them, by which they bring the wrath of their God upon them whenever they do wrong; so that my lord will not be repulsed and fail, but death will overtake them." [JDTH 11:9-11]

But Queen Vashti refused to come at the royal order issued through the eunuchs. At this the king's wrath flared up, and he burned with fury. [ESTH 1:12]

When Mattathias and his friends heard of it, they mourned deeply for them. "If we all do as our kinsmen have done," they said to one another, "and do not fight against the Gentiles for our lives and our traditions, they will soon destroy us from the earth." On that day they came to this decision: "Let us fight against anyone who attacks us on the sabbath, so that we may not all die as our kinsmen died in the hiding places." Then they were joined by a group of Hasideans, valiant Israelites, all of them devout followers of the law. And all those who were fleeing from the disaster joined them and supported them. They gathered an army and struck down sinners in their anger and lawbreakers in their wrath, and the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety. [1MACC 2:39-44]

Then his son Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took his place. All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they carried on Israel's war joyfully. He spread abroad the glory of his people, and put on his breastplate like a giant. He armed himself with weapons of war; he planned battles and protected the camp with his sword. He went about the cities of Judah destroying the impious there. He turned away wrath from Israel and was renowned to the ends of the earth; he gathered together those who were perishing. [1MACC 3:1-3,8-9]

"Like my brothers, I offer up my body and my life for our ancestral laws, imploring God to show mercy soon to our nation, and by afflictions and blows to make you confess that he alone is God. Through me and my brothers, may there be an end to the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation." [2MACC 7:37-38]

Once Maccabeus got his men organized, the Gentiles could not withstand him, for the Lord's wrath had now changed to mercy. [2MACC 8:5]

As I see it, those who plow for mischief and sow trouble, reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his wrath they are consumed. [JOB 4:8-9]

Oh, that you would hide me in the nether world and keep me sheltered till your wrath is past; would fix a time for me, and then remember me! [JOB 14:13]

His wrath he has kindled against me; he counts me among his enemies. [JOB 19:11]

May God not store up the man's misery for his children; let him requite the man himself so that he feels it, Let his own eyes see the calamity, and the wrath of the Almighty let him drink! [JOB 21:19-20]

Then the three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But the anger of Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled. He was angry with Job for considering himself rather than God to be in the right. He was angry also with the three friends because they had not found a good answer and had not condemned Job. But since these men were older than he, Elihu bided his time before addressing Job. When, however, Elihu saw that there was no reply in the mouths of the three men, his wrath was inflamed. [JOB 32:1-5]

Then the LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said: Gird up your loins now, like a man. I will question you, and you tell me the answers! Would you refuse to acknowledge my right? Would you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like that of God, or can you thunder with a voice like his? Adorn yourself with grandeur and majesty, and array yourself with glory and splendor. Let loose the fury of your wrath; tear down the wicked and shatter them. Bring down the haughty with a glance; bury them in the dust together; in the hidden world imprison them. Then will I too acknowledge that your own right hand can save you. [JOB 40:6-14]

Why do the nations protest and the peoples grumble in vain? Kings on earth rise up and princes plot together against the LORD and his anointed: "Let us break their shackles and cast off their chains!" The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides them, Then speaks to them in anger, terrifies them in wrath: "I myself have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain." I will proclaim the decree of the LORD, who said to me, "You are my son; today I am your father." [PS 2:1-7]

Do not reprove me in your anger, LORD, nor punish me in your wrath. Have pity on me, LORD, for I am weak; heal me, LORD, for my bones are trembling. In utter terror is my soul [Taken from PS 6:2-4]

In my distress I called out: LORD! I cried out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry to him reached his ears. The earth rocked and shook; the foundations of the mountains trembled; they shook as his wrath flared up. Smoke rose in his nostrils, a devouring fire poured from his mouth; it kindled coals into flame. He parted the heavens and came down, a dark cloud under his feet. Mounted on a cherub he flew, borne along on the wings of the wind. He made darkness the cover about him; his canopy, heavy thunderheads. Before him scudded his clouds, hail and lightning too. The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High made his voice resound. He let fly his arrows and scattered them; shot his lightning bolts and dispersed them. Then the bed of the sea appeared; the world's foundations lay bare, At the roar of the LORD, at the storming breath of his nostrils. He reached down from on high and seized me; drew me out of the deep waters. [PS 18:7-17]

Give up your anger, abandon your wrath; do not be provoked; it brings only harm. Those who do evil will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD will possess the land. [PS 37:8-9]

LORD, punish me no more in your anger; in your wrath do not chastise me! Your arrows have sunk deep in me; your hand has come down upon me. My flesh is afflicted because of your anger; my frame aches because of my sin. My iniquities overwhelm me, a burden beyond my strength. [PS 38:2-5]

Make their eyes so dim they cannot see; keep their backs ever feeble. Pour out your wrath upon them; let the fury of your anger overtake them. Make their camp desolate, with none to dwell in their tents. For they pursued the one you struck, added to the pain of the one you wounded. Add that to their crimes; let them not attain to your reward. Strike them from the book of the living; do not count them among the just! [PS 69:24-29]

At your roar, O God of Jacob, chariots and steeds lay still. So terrible and awesome are you; who can stand before you and your great anger? From the heavens you pronounced sentence; the earth was terrified and reduced to silence, When you arose, O God, for judgment to deliver the afflicted of the land. Selah Even wrathful Edom praises you; the remnant of Hamath keeps your feast. [PS 76:7-11]

How long, LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your rage keep burning like fire? Pour out your wrath on nations that reject you, on kingdoms that do not call on your name, For they have devoured Jacob, laid waste his home. Do not hold past iniquities against us; may your compassion come quickly, for we have been brought very low. [PS 79:5-8]

You once favored, LORD, your land, restored the good fortune of Jacob. You forgave the guilt of your people, pardoned all their sins. You withdrew all your wrath, turned back your burning anger. Restore us once more, God our savior; abandon your wrath against us. Will you be angry with us forever, drag out your anger for all generations? Please give us life again, that your people may rejoice in you. Show us, LORD, your love; grant us your salvation. [Taken from PS 85:2-8]

You plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss. Your wrath lies heavy upon me; all your waves crash over me. Because of you my friends shun me; you make me loathsome to them; Caged in, I cannot escape; my eyes grow dim from trouble. All day I call on you, LORD; I stretch out my hands to you. [Taken from PS 88:7-10]

But I cry out to you, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why do you reject me, LORD? Why hide your face from me? I am mortally afflicted since youth; lifeless, I suffer your terrible blows. Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have reduced me to silence. All the day they surge round like a flood; from every side they close in on me. Because of you companions shun me; my only friend is darkness. [PS 88:14-19]

How long, LORD? Will you stay hidden forever? Must your wrath smolder like fire? Remember how brief is my life, how frail the race you created! [PS 89:47-48]

Truly we are consumed by your anger, filled with terror by your wrath. You have kept our faults before you, our hidden sins exposed to your sight. Our life ebbs away under your wrath; our years end like a sigh. Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong; Most of them are sorrow and toil; they pass quickly, we are all but gone. Who comprehends your terrible anger? Your wrath matches the fear it inspires. Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Relent, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Fill us at daybreak with your love, that all our days we may sing for joy. Make us glad as many days as you humbled us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. [PS 90:7-15]

I lie awake and moan, like a lone sparrow on the roof. All day long my enemies taunt me; in their rage, they make my name a curse. I eat ashes like bread, mingle my drink with tears. Because of your furious wrath, you lifted me up just to cast me down. My days are like a lengthening shadow; I wither like the grass. [PS 102:8-12]

At your right hand is the Lord, who crushes kings on the day of wrath, Who, robed in splendor, judges nations, crushes heads across the wide earth, Who drinks from the brook by the wayside and thus holds high the head. [PS 110:5-7]

But he who commits adultery is a fool; he who would destroy himself does it. A degrading beating will he get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away; For vindictive is the husband's wrath, he will have no pity on the day of vengeance; He will not consider any restitution, nor be satisfied with the greatest gifts. [PROV 6:32-35]

Wealth is useless on the day of wrath, but virtue saves from death. [PROV 11:4]

The desire of the just ends only in good; the expectation of the wicked is wrath. [PROV 11:23]

The king favors the intelligent servant, but the worthless one incurs his wrath. [PROV 14:35]

A mild answer calms wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. [PROV 15:1]

The king's wrath is like messengers of death, but a wise man can pacify it. [PROV 16:14]

The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor, like dew on the grass. [PROV 19:12]

A secret gift allays anger, and a concealed present, violent wrath. [PROV 21:14]

Be not friendly with a hotheaded man, nor the companion of a wrathful man, Lest you learn his ways, and get yourself into a snare. [PROV 22:24-25]

Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and when he stumbles, let not your heart exult, Lest the LORD see it, be displeased with you, and withdraw his wrath from your enemy. [PROV 24:17-18]

Anger is relentless, and wrath overwhelming - but before jealousy who can stand? [PROV 27:4]

All the days of his life are passed in gloom and sorrow, under great vexation, sickness and wrath. [ECCL 5:16]

Therefore shall they receive the splendid crown, the beauteous diadem, from the hand of the LORD- For he shall shelter them with his right hand, and protect them with his arm. He shall take his zeal for armor and he shall arm creation to requite the enemy; He shall don justice for a breastplate and shall wear sure judgment for a helmet; He shall take invincible rectitude as a shield and whet his sudden anger for a sword, And the universe shall war with him against the foolhardy. Well-aimed shafts of lightnings shall go forth and from the clouds as from a well-drawn bow shall leap to the mark; and as from his sling, wrathful hailstones shall be hurled. The water of the sea shall be enraged against them and the streams shall abruptly overflow; A mighty wind shall confront them and a tempest winnow them out; Thus lawlessness shall lay the whole earth waste and evildoing overturn the thrones of potentates. [WISDOM 5:16-23]

But when the unjust man withdrew from [wisdom] in his anger, he perished through his fratricidal wrath. When on his account the earth was flooded, Wisdom again saved it, piloting the just man on frailest wood. [Taken from WISDOM 10:3-4]

For not without means was your almighty hand, that had fashioned the universe from formless matter, to send upon them a drove of bears or fierce lions, Or new-created, wrathful, unknown beasts to breathe forth fiery breath, Or pour out roaring smoke, or flash terrible sparks from their eyes. Not only could these attack and completely destroy them; even their frightful appearance itself could slay. [WISDOM 11:17-19]

But the trial of death touched at one time even the just, and in the desert a plague struck the multitude; Yet not for long did the anger last. For the blameless man hastened to be their champion, bearing the weapon of his special office, prayer and the propitiation of incense; He withstood the wrath and put a stop to the calamity, showing that he was your servant. And he overcame the bitterness not by bodily strength, not by force of arms; But by word he overcame the smiter, recalling the sworn covenants with their fathers. [WISDOM 18:20-22]

Of forgiveness be not overconfident, adding sin upon sin. Say not: "Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive." For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath. [SIRACH 5:5-7]

Delay not your conversion to the LORD, put it not off from day to day; For suddenly his wrath flames forth; at the time of vengeance, you will be destroyed. Rely not upon deceitful wealth, for it will be no help on the day of wrath. [SIRACH 5:8-10]

Do not esteem yourself better than your fellows; remember, his wrath will not delay. More and more, humble your pride; what awaits man is worms. [SIRACH 7:16-17]

Against a sinful band fire is enkindled, upon a godless people wrath flames out. He forgave not the leaders of old who rebelled long ago in their might; He spared not the neighbors of Lot whom he detested for their pride; Nor did he spare the doomed people who were uprooted because of their sin; Nor the six hundred thousand foot soldiers who perished for the impiety of their hearts. And had there been but one stiffnecked man, it were a wonder had he gone unpunished. For mercy and anger alike are with him who remits and forgives, though on the wicked alights his wrath. Great as his mercy is his punishment; he judges men, each according to his deeds. A criminal does not escape with his plunder; a just man's hope God does not leave unfulfilled. Whoever does good has his reward, which each receives according to his deeds. [SIRACH 16:6-14]

Before making a vow have the means to fulfill it; be not one who tries the LORD. Think of wrath and the day of death, the time of vengeance when he will hide his face. [SIRACH 18:23-24]

Two types of men multiply sins, a third draws down wrath; For burning passion is a blazing fire, not to be quenched till it burns itself out: A man given to sins of the flesh, who never stops until the fire breaks forth; The rake to whom all bread is sweet and who is never through till he dies; And the man who dishonors his marriage bed and says to himself "Who can see me? Darkness surrounds me, walls hide me; no one sees me; why should I fear to sin?" Of the Most High he is not mindful, fearing only the eyes of men; He does not understand that the eyes of the LORD, ten thousand times brighter than the sun, Observe every step a man takes and peer into hidden corners. He who knows all things before they exist still knows them all after they are made. [SIRACH 23:16-20]

Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. [SIRACH 27:30]

The vengeful will suffer the LORD'S vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the LORD? Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins? If he who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; of the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults. [SIRACH 28:1-7]

The more wood, the greater the fire, the more underlying it, the fiercer the fight; The greater a man's strength, the sterner his anger, the greater his power, the greater his wrath. [SIRACH 28:10]

Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as by the tongue. Happy he who is sheltered from it, and has not endured its wrath; Who has not borne its yoke nor been fettered with its chain; For its yoke is a yoke of iron and its chains are chains of bronze! [SIRACH 28:18-20]

Raise your hand against the heathen, that they may realize your power. As you have used us to show them your holiness, so now use them to show us your glory. Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you. Give new signs and work new wonders; show forth the splendor of your right hand and arm; Rouse your anger, pour out wrath, humble the enemy, scatter the foe. [SIRACH 36:2-6]

Again, his wrath expels the nations and turns fertile land into a salt marsh. For the virtuous his paths are level, to the haughty they are steep; Good things for the good he provided from the beginning, but for the wicked good things and bad. [SIRACH 39:23-25]

A great anxiety has God allotted, and a heavy yoke, to the sons of men; From the day one leaves his mother's womb to the day he returns to the mother of all the living, His thoughts, the fear in his heart, and his troubled forebodings till the day he dies - Whether he sits on a lofty throne or grovels in dust and ashes, Whether he bears a splendid crown or is wrapped in the coarsest of cloaks - Are of wrath and envy, trouble and dread, terror of death, fury and strife. Even when he lies on his bed to rest, his cares at night disturb his sleep. So short is his rest it seems like none, till in his dreams he struggles as he did by day, Terrified by what his mind's eye sees, like a fugitive being pursued; As he reaches safety, he wakes up astonished that there was nothing to fear. So it is with all flesh, with man and with beast, but for sinners seven times more. Plague and bloodshed, wrath and the sword, plunder and ruin, famine and death: For the wicked, these were created evil, and it is they who bring on destruction. All that is of earth returns to earth, and what is from above returns above. [SIRACH 40:1-11]

He gave to him his laws, and authority to prescribe and to judge: To teach the precepts to his people, and the ritual to the descendants of Israel. Men of other families were inflamed against him, were jealous of him in the desert, The followers of Dathan and Abiram, and the band of Korah in their defiance. But the LORD saw this and became angry, he destroyed them in his burning wrath. He brought down upon them a miracle, and consumed them with his flaming fire. Then he increased the glory of Aaron and bestowed upon him his inheritance: The sacred offerings he allotted to him, with the showbread as his portion; The oblations of the LORD are his food, a gift to him and his descendants. [SIRACH 45:17-21]

You were called by that glorious name which was conferred upon Israel. Gold you gathered like so much iron, you heaped up silver as though it were lead; But you abandoned yourself to women and gave them dominion over your body. You brought dishonor upon your reputation, shame upon your marriage, Wrath upon your descendants, and groaning upon your domain; Thus two governments came into being, when in Ephraim kingship was usurped. But God does not withdraw his mercy, nor permit even one of his promises to fail. He does not uproot the posterity of his chosen one, nor destroy the offspring of his friend. So he gave to Jacob a remnant, to David a root from his own family. [SIRACH 47:18-22]

How awesome are you, Elijah! Whose glory is equal to yours? You brought a dead man back to life from the nether world, by the will of the LORD. You sent kings down to destruction, and nobles, from their beds of sickness. You heard threats at Sinai, at Horeb avenging judgments. You anointed kings who should inflict vengeance, and a prophet as your successor. You were taken aloft in a whirlwind, in a chariot with fiery horses. You are destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD, To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons, and to reestablish the tribes of Jacob. [SIRACH 48:4-10]

Therefore, as the tongue of fire licks up stubble, as dry grass shrivels in the flame, Even so their root shall become rotten and their blossom scatter like dust; For they have spurned the law of the LORD of hosts, and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the LORD blazes against his people, he raises his hand to strike them; When the mountains quake, their corpses shall be like refuse in the streets. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched. [ISA 5:24-25]

The Lord has sent word against Jacob, it falls upon Israel; And all the people know it, Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria, those who say in arrogance and pride of heart, "Bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone; Sycamores are felled, but we will replace them with cedars." But the LORD raises up their foes against them and stirs up their enemies to action: Aram on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched! The people do not turn to him who struck them, nor seek the LORD of hosts. So the LORD severs from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day. (The elder and the noble are the head, the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.) The leaders of this people mislead them and those to be led are engulfed. For this reason, the Lord does not spare their young men, and their orphans and widows he does not pity; They are wholly profaned and sinful, and every mouth gives vent to folly. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched! For wickedness burns like fire, devouring brier and thorn; It kindles the forest thickets, which go up in columns of smoke. At the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land quakes, and the people are like fuel for fire; No man spares his brother... Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn on Judah. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched! [ISA 9:7-18,20]

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees, Depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, Making widows their plunder, and orphans their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment, when ruin comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth, Lest it sink beneath the captive or fall beneath the slain? For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched! [ISA 10:1-4]

Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger, my staff in wrath. Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him To seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets. [ISA 10:5-6]

Yes, the destruction he has decreed, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will carry out within the whole land. Therefore thus says the Lord, the GOD of hosts: O my people, who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian, though he strikes you with a rod, and raises his staff against you. For only a brief moment more, and my anger shall be over; but them I will destroy in wrath. Then the LORD of hosts will raise against them a scourge such as struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did against Egypt. On that day, His burden shall be taken from your shoulder, and his yoke shattered from your neck. He has come up from the direction of Rimmon, he has reached Aiath, passed through Migron, at Michmash his supplies are stored. [ISA 10:23-28]

Listen! the rumble on the mountains: that of an immense throng! Listen! the noise of kingdoms, nations assembled! The LORD of hosts is mustering an army for battle. They come from a far-off country, and from the end of the heavens, The LORD and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy all the land. Howl, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Therefore all hands fall helpless, the bows of the young men fall from their hands. Every man's heart melts in terror. Pangs and sorrows take hold of them, like a woman in labor they writhe; They look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. Lo, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and burning anger; To lay waste the land and destroy the sinners within it! The stars and constellations of the heavens send forth no light; The sun is dark when it rises, and the light of the moon does not shine. Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their guilt. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, the insolence of tyrants I will humble. I will make mortals more rare than pure gold, men, than gold of Ophir. For this I will make the heavens tremble and the earth shall be shaken from its place, At the wrath of the LORD of hosts on the day of his burning anger. [ISA 13:4-13]

The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the staff of the tyrants That struck the peoples in wrath relentless blows; That beat down the nations in anger, with oppression unchecked. The whole earth rests peacefully, song breaks forth; The very cypresses rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon: "Now that you are laid to rest, there will be none to cut us down." [ISA 14:5-8]

Go, my people, enter your chambers, and close your doors behind you; Hide yourselves for a brief moment, until the wrath is past. See, the LORD goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth's inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood upon her, and no longer conceal her slain. [ISA 26:20-21]

See the name of the LORD coming from afar in burning wrath, with lowering clouds! His lips are filled with fury, his tongue is like a consuming fire; His breath, like a flood in a ravine that reaches suddenly to the neck, Will winnow the nations with a destructive winnowing, and with repeated winnowings will he battle against them (and a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to send them astray). The LORD will make his glorious voice heard, and let it be seen how his arm descends In raging fury and flame of consuming fire, in driving storm and hail. [ISA 30:27-30]

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