How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
Parallel translations
- WEB How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
- BSB How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
- NKJV How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
- NASB How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
- NLT O Lord, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The psalmist asks how long God's anger will burn against them. It is a heartfelt plea for mercy amid prolonged judgment.
Overview
The cry 'How long, Yahweh?' expresses the anguish of waiting under God's discipline. The people acknowledge His righteous jealousy yet plead for it to relent. This honest lament teaches believers to bring their distress to God, trusting that His anger toward His people is not endless but yields to mercy, supremely satisfied at the cross.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 89:46How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
- Ps 74:1O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
- Ps 85:5Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
- Zeph 3:8Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
- Deut 29:20The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
- Ezek 36:5Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
- Ps 74:9–10We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
- Ps 80:4O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
- Ps 13:1–2How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
- Rev 6:10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
- Ps 103:9He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
- Deut 32:22For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
- Mic 7:18Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
- Isa 64:9Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
- Deut 32:16They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
- Zeph 1:18Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 79:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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