anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

Translation commentary on Sirach 39:28

Translators should follow the stanza break here in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

There are winds that have been created for vengeance: God, of course, is the creator of these winds. Vengeance refers to God’s use of these winds as punishment. An alternative model is “The Lord created fierce winds to punish people.”

And in their anger they scourge heavily: Good News Translation and New Revised Standard Version read the Hebrew here, which we do not recommend. The line in Hebrew is highly defective; all that can be read with confidence is the word for “dislodge” (Good News Translation “move”). The word “mountains” is not even present, although there are reasons for thinking it belongs. We will stay with the Greek, but there is a textual problem there. For their anger, some manuscripts read “his anger,” and for they scourge, they read “he scourges,” referring to God. New Jerusalem Bible so translates, saying “in his fury, he uses them [winds] as scourges.” Since the fourth line of this verse refers explicitly to the Lord’s anger, we recommend “his anger” here. We could say “and when he [or, the Lord] is angry, he uses them as whips.” The first two lines may be rendered “The Lord created fierce winds to punish people, and when he is angry, he uses the winds as whips.”

In the time of consummation they will pour out their strength: The word their is found only in a few manuscripts, and should not be read. Consummation refers to the occasion when God unleashes his anger. New Jerusalem Bible goes so far as to say “on the day of doom,” and New Revised Standard Version has “on the day of reckoning.” Good News Translation seems better with “In times of judgment,” since there is no evidence anywhere else in the book that ben Sira has any idea of a final judgment in the Christian sense. He speaks of any occasion when God uses the forces of nature as instruments of punishment.

And calm the anger of their Maker: When God uses the winds as punishment, his anger ceases.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• The Lord created fierce winds to punish people.
When he is angry and punishes the guilty,
violent storms lash them like whips,
until their maker is no longer angry.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.