But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Parallel translations
- WEB But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
- KJV But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
- NKJV But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
- NASB But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
- NLT But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
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
A hard, unrepentant heart stores up wrath for the day of God's righteous judgment. Refusing to repent only increases one's coming condemnation.
Overview
Paul warns that impenitence is not neutral; it 'treasures up' wrath like accumulating a fearful debt against 'the day of wrath.' The contrast with v.4 is stark: God's patience meant for repentance becomes, when spurned, the occasion for greater judgment. The 'righteous judgment of God' will be perfectly just, exposing the heart's true condition.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 31
- Eccl 12:14For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
- Rom 1:18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
- Rom 2:2–3And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
- Heb 3:15As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.”
- 2 Pet 3:7And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
- Jude 1:6And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.
- Deut 32:34“Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults?
- Rom 9:22What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?
- 2 Chr 30:8Now do not stiffen your necks as your fathers did. Submit to the LORD and come to His sanctuary, which He has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that His fierce anger will turn away from you.
- 1 Sam 6:6Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people on their way as they departed?
- Heb 3:13But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
- Zech 7:11–12But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
- Heb 4:7God again designated a certain day as “Today,” when a long time later He spoke through David as was just stated: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
- 2 Pet 2:9if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- Ps 110:5The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.
- Rev 6:17For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
- Prov 11:4Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Ezek 3:7But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.
- Prov 29:1A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
- 2 Chr 36:13He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.
- Rom 11:25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
- Dan 5:20But when his heart became arrogant and his spirit was hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken from him.
- Jas 5:3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days.
- Job 21:30Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
- Deut 2:30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as is the case this day.
- Josh 11:20For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts to engage Israel in battle, so that they would be set apart for destruction and would receive no mercy, being annihilated as the LORD had commanded Moses.
- Ps 95:8do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,
- Isa 48:4For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.
- Exod 8:15When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, however, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.
- Amos 3:10“For they know not how to do right,” declares the LORD. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”
- Exod 14:17And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. Then I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army and chariots and horsemen.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 2:5 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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