God's anger, wrath of God

The Hebrew and Greek What is translated into English as “the wrath of God” (Good News Translation: “God’s anger”) has to be referred to in Bengali as judgment, punishment or whatever fits the context. In Bengali culture, anger is by definition bad and can never be predicated of God. (Source: David Clark)

In Kikuyu the whole phrase that is translated in English as “storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath” or similar is translated as “you are increasing for yourself God’s wrath.” (Source: Jan Sterk)

In Quetzaltepec Mixe it is translated with a term “that not only expresses anger, but also punishment” (source: Robert Bascom), in Western Bukidnon Manobo as “the coming punishment of God on mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation), in Kankanaey as “God’s fearful/terrible future punishing of people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation), in Tagbanwa as “the coming anger/hatred of God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation), and in Tenango Otomi as “the punishment which will come” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation).

See also anger.

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 22:19 - 22:20

In verses 19-22 God applies the metaphor of purifying silver to the people of Jerusalem. He will refine them like silver. The Hebrew pronouns for you in these verse are plural, so they clearly refer to the people.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: God begins the application with this traditional prophetic formula (see Ezek 22.3).

Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem: Because the people are like dross, that is, leftover metal (see verse 18), God will put them back into the furnace to be heated and melted again. In this picture Jerusalem is the furnace. For behold see Ezek 22.6.

As men gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace: See verse 18.

To blow the fire upon it in order to melt it refers to the way metalworkers use bellows to blow air onto a fire to make it burn more hotly in order to melt the metal into a liquid form.

So I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you: The heating and melting here is a picture of the suffering and punishment that the people of Jerusalem will undergo. God will gather them in the same way as metalworkers collect leftover metal and put it into a furnace. The reason that God will bring the people together is because he is angry with them on account of their sins. For the Hebrew words rendered anger and wrath, see the comments on 5.13, where they are translated “anger” and “fury.” I will put you in and melt you means God will put his people in the furnace (Jerusalem) and melt them in order to punish them.

A model for translating these two verses is included at the end of the discussion on verse 22.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .