Limitless Word
Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?
Psalms 85:5 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?
  • KJV Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
  • NKJV Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
  • NASB Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
  • NLT Will you be angry with us always? Will you prolong your wrath to all generations?

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 people ask whether God's anger will last forever. The honest question expresses longing for mercy amid prolonged discipline.

Overview

These rhetorical questions voice the tension of a people still feeling God's displeasure, yet trusting His character is not finally wrathful. Scripture elsewhere assures that God's anger is for a moment but His favor for a lifetime. The cross answers this cry definitively, for in Christ God's anger against His people is forever spent.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 9

  • Ps 79:5How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
  • Ps 80:4O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?
  • Ps 74:1A Maskil of Asaph. Why have You rejected us forever, O God? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?
  • Mic 7:18Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
  • Rev 18:21–23Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.
  • Ps 77:9Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has His anger shut off His compassion?” Selah
  • Isa 64:9–12Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!
  • Ps 89:46How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?
  • Luke 21:24They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 85:5YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 85:5 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

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.