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.

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Psalm 90:11 - 90:12

As suggested in the introduction above and in the comment on verse 7, verse 11 is the end of the confessional unit, and translators may wish to make the division into units in that way rather than as found here.

The meaning of the two rhetorical questions in verse 11 is not at once apparent. The first one seems to mean that no one has ever really experienced the full effect of God’s anger against human sin; consequently a person should always be conscious of the punishment that awaits sin. Considers is “knows” in Hebrew–a verb for deep, intimate knowledge. Thus the request in verse 12 comes as a consequence of acknowledging the need for such knowledge. But verse 11b, if parallel with verse 11a, is quite obscure in Hebrew: “as your fear (so is) your rage.” Revised Standard Version is unintelligible. Good News Translation takes “your fear” to be an objective genitive phrase, that is, fear of God, produced by his fury. New Jerusalem Bible has “Your wrath matches the fear of You” (similarly New International Version). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible is “The more we fear you, the more we know your fury,” which it explains in a footnote: “your fury is up to the measure of the fear you inspire.” New Jerusalem Bible has “who fears you, your wrath?” Another possible rendering is to carry over the verb “who understands” from line a and translate line b “and (who understands) your fury, so that he shows you due reverence?” New American Bible is different: “or (who knows) your indignation toward those who fear you?” And Dahood translates “or (who can understand) that those who fear you can be the object of your fury?” In face of such diversity, the most a translator can do is choose the rendering that seems to fit the context best. If the translator follows Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version power of thy anger, in many languages this noun phrase will have to be recast as a clause, “Who has felt the powerful effect when God is angry?” In languages in which an object must be associated with God’s anger, it is possible to say “… when God is angry at the bad things which people do?”

Verse 12 begins the series of petitions found in each succeeding verse. The verse is a plea; the psalmist asks God to make him realize how short life is, so as to get a heart of wisdom (see Deut 32.29). The literal translation to number our days in line a would mean “to keep an account of the days (already lived),” so as to be aware of how many are still left. Bible en français courant translates, “Make us understand that our days are numbered.”

Wisdom, as elsewhere in Psalms and Proverbs, here includes heavy emphasis on reverence for God. In languages in which “become wise” merely means to be bright and intelligent, it will be better to make the content of such wisdom associated with God; for example, “so that we may have God’s wisdom in our hearts.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .