O Lord, how long will this go on? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your anger burn like fire?
Parallel translations
- WEB How long, Yahweh? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire?
- KJV How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
- BSB How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?
- NKJV How long, Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?
- NASB ¶How long, Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath 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 cries out, asking how long God will hide Himself and let His wrath burn.
Overview
The lament becomes urgent petition: "How long, Yahweh?" The hiddenness of God and the burning of His wrath feel unbearable. This honest cry, common in the Psalms, trusts that God hears even when He seems absent, and looks for the day His face will again shine on His people in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 79:5How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
- Ps 78:63Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
- Ps 88:14Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
- Ps 90:13Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
- Heb 12:29for our God is a consuming fire.
- Job 23:9He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.
- Hos 5:15I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”
- Jer 21:12House of David, Yahweh says, ‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
- Isa 45:15Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’”
- 2 Th 1:8giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,
- Isa 8:17I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
- Ps 10:1Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
- Ps 13:1–2For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
- Ps 85:5Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?
- Jer 4:4Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
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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 89:46 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.