To anger
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The Greek verb orgizo describes becoming angry or enraged, often as a response to a person, report, refusal, or perceived wrong. New Testament contexts evaluate that anger by its object, duration, and fruit.
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Full entry for ὀργίζω (G3710) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb orgizo describes becoming angry or enraged, often as a response to a person, report, refusal, or perceived wrong. New Testament contexts evaluate that anger by its object, duration, and fruit.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include was enraged (2), [The older son] became angry (1), Be angry (1), became angry (1), In anger (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (3), Luke (2), Revelation (2), Ephesians (1).
The Greek verb orgizo describes becoming angry or enraged, often as a response to a person, report, refusal, or perceived wrong. New Testament contexts evaluate that anger by its object, duration, and fruit. Jesus warns that anger joined to contempt and demeaning speech is answerable to judgment. The older brother's anger keeps him outside the father's celebration and resistant to restored relationship.
Ephesians acknowledges anger while forbidding sin and prolonged hostility. In a parable, an offended host's anger is followed by an urgent invitation to poor and disabled neighbors, while Revelation depicts the dragon's rage issuing in war against God's people. The word itself does not certify a response as holy or sinful without context, and the grammatical form does not remove moral agency.
Responsible teaching neither shames the first sensation of anger nor lets intensity excuse abuse. It calls for truthful naming, prompt restraint, repair, protection of targets, and refusal of contempt, coercion, revenge, or spiritual threats.
Orgizo names becoming angry in warnings, parables, household reconciliation, ethical instruction, and apocalyptic conflict. Context shows anger moving toward contempt, exclusion, accountability, generous invitation, restrained action, or violent opposition.
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.
Jesus joins anger with contemptuous speech and warns that demeaning a brother is answerable to judgment.
The servant returned and reported all this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
The host becomes angry at refused invitations and orders his servant to welcome poor and disabled people.
The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
The older son's anger leaves him outside the celebration while his father comes and pleads with him.
“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger,
Paul acknowledges anger while commanding believers not to sin or preserve it through the night.
And the dragon was enraged at the woman and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.
The dragon's rage against the woman turns outward into war against the rest of her children.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Provoked anger that rises suddenly; in NT always passive, emphasizing the emotional response triggered.
Provoked anger that rises suddenly; in NT always passive, emphasizing the emotional response triggered.
(ὀργή), [in LXX chiefly for חָרָה, also for קָצַף, etc. ;] to make angry, provoke to anger; in cl. most frequently in pass., and so always in NT, to be provoked to anger, be angry: absol., Mat.18:34 22:7, Luk.14:21 15:28, Eph.4:26" (LXX), Rev.11:18; with dative, Mat.5:22; before ἐπί, with dative (3Ki.11:9, al.), Rev.12:17 (cf. παρ-ὀργίζω).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseI irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseI irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseI irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseI irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseI irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseI irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseI irritate, provoke, am angry
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this verb appears across 9 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Representative Scripture witnesses for this entry: passage, original form, and sense in context.
ὀργίζω is built from this root:
Reveals the internal root of violent sin.Matthew 5:21–26
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Orgizo is best taught through trajectories. In Matthew 5, anger appears alongside contemptuous labels within Jesus' deepening treatment of murder, so disciples must address the relational roots and speech that dehumanize a brother. In Luke 15, the older son becomes angry and remains outside. The father approaches and pleads, but the parable does not call his exclusion justice; resentment prevents him from sharing the joy of restoration.
Ephesians 4 refuses two distortions at once. Anger is acknowledged, yet it must not govern sinful action, persist without limit, or give the devil an opportunity; nearby commands require truthful speech, constructive words, kindness, and forgiveness. Luke 14 depicts a host's anger followed by widening the invitation to people often excluded, showing that strong response need not end in retaliation against vulnerable neighbors.
Revelation 12 identifies a contrary path as the dragon's rage becomes war. Faithful practice therefore names anger without shame, slows action, rejects contempt and coercion, protects anyone at risk, pursues appropriate repair, and recognizes that forgiveness never requires renewed access where violence or abuse remains unaddressed.
Eph.4.26
Orgizo is related to the Greek noun orge and appears in middle or passive forms often translated as becoming angry or being enraged. Those forms describe the response's onset, but discourse context supplies its cause, duration, object, and moral outcome.
Hebrew Scripture distinguishes the Lord's just anger from impulsive human vengeance and repeatedly praises slowness to anger. The New Testament continues that distinction by acknowledging anger while forbidding contempt, retaliation, enduring hostility, and persecution.