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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 29, 1867

God’s Anger: When is it Manifested?

“God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.” Psa. vii, 11, 12.

It is true God is a judge as well as a Father, a ruler as well as a Saviour. It is true that He loves righteousness and hates wickedness; but while he abhors sin, he still loves and pities sinners. And he who would rightly testify the gospel of the grace of God, must truly tell the story of the tender bearing of the heavenly Father toward the lost and ruined sons of men, lest he repel those he ought to win, and discourage those whom he should seek to save.

“But does not the Bible say that ‘God is angry with the wicked every day?’ And has not this word of God been the warrant for, and substance of, the most thrilling sermons and the most terrible appeals? Does not the Bible say this?”

Our answer is Yes, and No! That is, King James’ Bible says, ‘God is angry with the wicked every day,’ but God’s Bible says no such thing. The well-instructed reader of the Scriptures need not be informed that wherever words in the common English Bible are printed in italic letters, it is to indicate that there are no corresponding words in the original Hebrew or Greek;—the italic words being added by the translators to supply something which they deemed needful to complete the sense. Now in this passage, Psalm vii, 11, the whole phrase, ‘With the wicked,’ is in italic letters, and is not found in the Hebrew Bible at all. Says Dr. Adam Clarke, “The Hebrew for this sentence, . . . according to the points, is, ‘And God is angry every day.’” Hence John Fry translates it, “Elohim is a righteous judge, yea, Elohim is angry from day to day.” J. Clowes renders it, “God is a just judge, and God is indignant every day.” And Benjamin Weiss translates it: “God is a righteous judge, and God is angry every day.” Such are some of the versions from the Hebrew, as it is pointed in the current editions of the Bible. Now, having settled that “God is angry every day,” of course the inquiry might arise, what, or whom, could he be angry with? Whom, but the wicked? thought the Jews who made the old Chaldee Paraphrase; and they added this to the text accordingly. And, says Dr. A. Clarke, “Our translation seems to have been borrowed from the CHALDEE, where the whole verse is as follows, ‘God is a righteous judge; and in strength he is angry against the wicked every day.’” Says Dr. J. M. Good, “The translators, not obtaining a satisfactory sense . . . have thought it necessary to interpolate, ‘With the wicked,’ for which the Hebrew text gives no authority whatever. And hence, while without it we get no good sense, this is a mere paraphrase destitute of any support.”

The whole, then, of this tremendous addition to the word of God, so contrary to the spirit of the gospel, and so opposed to the constant tenor of divine revelation, rests simply and solely upon the paraphrase of some ancient Jew, who gives no evidence of being acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ or the gospel of his grace, but whose unwarranted interference, adopted and incorporated by the translators among the words of inspiration, has cast a shadow over the character of the Heavenly Father, and perhaps done more to repel men from seeking his face than any other error that could be named.

Some English translators, however, give a different turn to the passage, as John Jebb, who renders it thus: “God is a righteous judge, and God is provoked every day.” And this is nearly the sense of the Prayer Book Version: “God is a righteous judge, strong and patient, and God is provoked every day.” Bp. Coverdale also renders it: “God is a righteous judge, and God is ever threatening.” But these versions do not seem to fully present the meaning of the sacred word.

Dr. Clarke, after quoting several translations, says: “I have judged it of consequence to trace this verse through all the ancient Versions in order to be able to ascertain what is the true reading, where the evidence on one side amounts to a positive affirmation, God is angry every day; and on the other side to as positive a negation, He is NOT angry every day. The mass of evidence supports the latter reading. The CHALDEE first corrupted the Text by making the addition, with the wicked, which our translators have followed; though they have put the words in italics, as not being in the Hebrew Text. In the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi there is no various reading on this Text. “‘The true sense may be restored thus:—el with the vowel point tsere signifies God:—al, the same letters with the point patha, signifies not. Several of the versions have read it in this way: ‘God judgeth the righteous and is NOT angry every day.’ He is not always chiding, nor is he always punishing, notwithstanding the continual wickedness of men.’ “In substantial accordance with this view, Dr. Clarke translates the passage as follows, from the ancient versions: THE VULGATE:—‘God is a Judge, righteous, strong and patient;—will he be angry every day?’ THE SEPTUAGINT:—‘God is a righteous judge, strong and long-suffering; not bringing forth his anger every day.’ SYRIAC:—‘God is the judge of

righteousness; he is not angry every day.’ THE ETHIOPIC:—‘God is a just judge, and strong and long-suffering; he will not bring forth tribulation daily.’ THE ARABIC:—‘God is a righteous judge strong and long-suffering; not bringing forth his anger every day.’”

To these may be added the DOUAY or Catholic version of the Vulgate:—“God is a just judge, strong and patient: is he angry every day?” Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint reads:—“God is a righteous judge, strong and patient, and not inflicting vengeance every day.” Charles Thomson renders it:—“God who is a judge just and powerful, (though he is long-suffering, and doth not execute vengeance every day) will, unless you turn back, sharpen his sword.” Bishop Horsely translates:—“God is a righteous judge, although he is not angry every day; if the man will not turn, he will whet his sword:” i. e., “his anger is not breaking forth upon every occasion, yet the season of judgment will surely come.” Granville Sharpe renders it:—“God judgeth the righteous and is not angry every day.” And Dr. John Mason Good gives it thus:—

“My defence is in God Who delivereth the upright in heart; A God of righteous judgment. Though he taketh not vengeance every day, If the man retract not, he will whet his sword. He hath stretched out his bow and made it ready, And fitted it to his weapon of destruction: He will deal out his arrows red-hot.”

Such are the proofs of this sad instance of darkening counsel “by words without knowledge,” through unwarranted additions to the words of God which are as pure as silver refined in a furnace.

And how fitly does this passage, when understood, illustrate the character of the heavenly Father. God is NOT “angry with the wicked every day.” No! King James’s Bible may say that, but God’s Bible never does. The Hebrew Bible, the Greek Bible, the Latin Bible, the Syriac Bible, the Arabic Bible, the Ethiopic Bible, say no such thing.

God is not angry with the wicked,—he is not angry every day. Grieved at his heart by the perverseness of those whom he has loved with an unfathomable affection, he still proclaims himself “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” Of him the Prophet testifies: “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.” “His anger endureth but for a moment: in his favor is life.” “His mercy endureth forever.” “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved; for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “God is love.” “We love him because he first loved us.”

Such are a few of the numerous scriptures which tell us of the pitying love of God to fallen men. And it was this love that Jesus manifested when he healed the sick, cast out demons, forgave sins, bound up broken hearts, received sinners, was kind to the evil and the unthankful, comforted all that mourned, wept over Jerusalem that rejected him, endured the cross and despised the shame for his enemies, saved the penitent malefactor by his side, prayed for the men that pierced and slew him, died, the just for the unjust, rose again for our justification, sent the first tidings of his resurrection to the man who had denied him with oaths and curses, had the disciples begin their proclamation of free pardon in the city where men clamored for his blood like beasts of prey, and to them who nailed him to the cross, converted the persecuting Saul, to make him a chosen vessel of mercy, and to manifest all his long-suffering in him, and finally has for eighteen hundred years kept open door to the meanest, the lowest, and the vilest of his friends and foes, and has never cast out a trembling sinner that has come to seek his face.

It is true that God is a governor as well as a Father. It is true that Christ is not only a Saviour, but is also an appointed Judge. But the time of judgment has not arrived, nor will it “until the Lord come, who shall both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and manifest the counsels of the hearts.” Now is the day of grace, of mercy, of salvation; judgment is yet “to come.”—The Christian.