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 Jeremiah 32:31

This city has aroused my anger and wrath: The Hebrew, “for on my anger and on my wrath became to me this city,” would sound odd if rendered literally into English. New Jerusalem Bible renders meaningfully, though closer to the literal form of Hebrew than Revised Standard Version: “[this city] has been such a cause of anger and wrath to me.” Anger (first used at 2.35) and wrath (first used at 4.4) have the same meaning here.

From the day it was built: In Hebrew this is an active construction, “from the day they built it.” This will actually be the best rendering in languages that would not use the passive in this kind of context. Further, in some languages this phrase would more naturally occur at the beginning of the sentence; for example, “From they day they built this city, these people have made me angry and furious.” Although the city of Jerusalem existed in Canaanite times (see 2Sam 5.6-12), the reference is to its earliest days as an Israelite city.

So that I will remove it from my sight: Clearly the intention is “and therefore I will destroy it.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .