O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh God of Armies, How long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
- BSB O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?
- NKJV O Lord God of hosts, How long will You be angry Against the prayer of Your people?
- NASB ¶Lord God of armies, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?
- NLT O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers?
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 will remain angry even with His people's prayers. It honestly voices the anguish of seeming unanswered prayer under God's discipline.
Overview
Addressing the LORD of Armies, the psalmist feels that even Israel's prayers are met with God's smoldering anger. The lament reflects the reality of divine discipline upon a covenant people who have strayed. Such honest crying out is itself an act of faith, trusting that the God who chastens will not stay angry forever (Ps. 30:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 85:5Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
- 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.
- Ps 74:1O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
- Ps 59:5Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
- Isa 58:2–3Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
- Ps 79:5How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
- Matt 15:22–28And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
- Lam 3:44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
- Isa 58:6–9Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
- Luke 18:1–8And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 80:4 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.