To glow or grow warm ; figuratively (usually) to blaze up , of anger, zeal, jealousy
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חָרָה is a verb commonly used for anger being kindled or burning. ” The heat imagery communicates intensity, but the verb alone does not determine whether the anger is righteous, sinful, proportionate, or uncontrolled.
Reader summary
Full entry for חָרָה (H2734) · Open the biblical lexicon
חָרָה is a verb commonly used for anger being kindled or burning. ” The heat imagery communicates intensity, but the verb alone does not determine whether the anger is righteous, sinful, proportionate, or uncontrolled.
The BSB source-word alignment has 91 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include burned (22), was kindled (6), be angry (5), burns (4), angry (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:5. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (11), Numbers (11), 2 Samuel (8), 1 Samuel (7).
חָרָה is a verb commonly used for anger being kindled or burning. It occurs with human and divine subjects and often appears in the idiom that someone’s anger “burned.” The heat imagery communicates intensity, but the verb alone does not determine whether the anger is righteous, sinful, proportionate, or uncontrolled. The subject, object, cause, and response must be read from the passage.
Jonah 4 repeatedly uses the verb as the prophet reacts to Nineveh’s deliverance and to the loss of the plant. The Lord asks whether Jonah’s anger is right or good, exposing the moral question at the center of the chapter. Jonah’s quotation of Exodus 34:6-7 and his wish to die show deep resistance to God’s compassion, but the text does not explicitly say he is protecting his prophetic credibility.
Genesis 4:5 uses the verb for Cain’s anger after his offering is not regarded, and the Lord warns him before he kills Abel. Exodus 32:10 uses it for the Lord’s anger after the golden calf, within a passage that also includes Moses’ intercession. Psalm 37:1 uses the same consonantal verb in the warning not to fret because of evildoers, showing that English rendering and construction can vary.
For teaching, חָרָה helps congregations examine anger rather than excuse or suppress it. Because Scripture attributes anger to God, human anger cannot be assessed by saying emotion as such is always sinful. Yet divine anger does not automatically justify a human person’s anger, and the moral difference cannot be settled from the shared verb alone.
חָרָה occurs approximately 90 times in the OT, predominantly as a description of burning anger. The phrase 'his anger burned' (wayyiḥar-lô or wayyiḥar-ʾap) is a formulaic expression of emotional intensity across narrative, prophecy, and Psalms. Major concentrations appear in Exodus (divine anger at Israel), Numbers (anger in wilderness narratives), and the prophetic literature. The Jonah uses (4:1, 4, 9) are among the most sustained theological interrogations of human anger in the Hebrew Bible.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
The literal Hebrew is 'it was evil to Jonah, a great evil, and it burned to him' — ḥārāh expressing the internal heat of his reaction to God's mercy on Nineveh. The juxtaposition is stunning: God repents of the calamity he planned for Nineveh, and Jonah's anger burns. The object of his burning is divine compassion. This is the central pastoral problem of the book: a prophet who has received mercy but refuses to extend it.
Yahweh (the Lord) said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"
The divine question cuts to the diagnostic heart of the ḥārāh theology: not 'do you feel angry?' (that is beyond dispute) but 'is this anger justified?' The question hangs unanswered in the text — Jonah gives no reply, but instead goes to sit outside the city and watch. The narrative then provides the answer through the plant and worm episode: God uses Jonah's own emotional experience to expose the disproportionality of his anger.
But He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
Cain's ḥārāh at God's acceptance of Abel's offering and rejection of his own — the first recorded instance of human burning anger in Scripture. God's response to Cain's anger is the same diagnostic question as to Jonah: 'Why are you angry?' (Gen 4:6). Both cases involve anger at divine discriminating mercy — anger that God extended grace in one direction but not another. Cain's ḥārāh leads to murder; Jonah's leads to suicidal despair (Jon 4:3). The burning unchecked is catastrophic.
Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
The divine ḥārāh against Israel at the golden calf — 'let my anger burn and I will consume them.' Moses' intercession of Exodus 32:11-14 appeals precisely to the divine character against the full expression of this burning: 'Turn from your fierce anger (ḥārôn ʾappekā).' The passage shows that divine ḥārāh is real, proportionate to the covenant breach, and — in this case — responsive to intercession.
The same God who questions Jonah's burning also burns himself, and that burning is not arbitrary but morally calibrated.
Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
The Psalm's opening counsel is literally 'do not burn (ḥārāh) because of evildoers' — ḥārāh applied to the envy and frustration that rises when the wicked prosper. The contrast with Jonah's burning is instructive: Jonah burned because the wicked were forgiven; the Psalm counsels against burning because the wicked are not yet judged. Both are distortions of the moral vision the covenant community is called to — in both cases, the diagnostic is what the burning is really about.
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.
Hebrew word. Anger as consuming fire: physical heat metaphor for divine or human wrath that burns and consumes the subject
Anger as consuming fire: physical heat metaphor for divine or human wrath that burns and consumes the subject
to glow or grow warm; figuratively (usually) to blaze up, of anger, zeal, jealousy BDB: burn Usage: be angry, burn, be displeased, × earnestly, fret self, grieve, be (wax) hot, be incensed, kindle, × very, be wroth. See 8474.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 90 lexical occurrence verses.
חָרָה is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jonah 4 asks whether the prophet’s burning anger is right. His anger arises as God relents from disaster against Nineveh and again when the plant dies. The Lord’s questions expose Jonah’s distorted concern and end by directing attention to God’s pity for the city. Teachers should stay with that narrative movement rather than assigning an unstated motive such as injured prophetic credibility.
Other uses show why context matters. Cain’s anger precedes murder, while the Lord’s anger at the golden calf belongs to covenant judgment and is narrated alongside Moses’ intercession. The same verb can describe both, but that shared vocabulary does not make human and divine anger morally equivalent. Human anger must be tested by God’s revealed character, commands, and the fruit it produces.
Ephesians 4:26-27 and James 1:19-20 give explicit New Testament instruction about anger and sin. Luke 15’s elder brother provides a useful thematic comparison with Jonah because both narratives involve resentment around mercy and welcome, but the characters and plots are not structurally identical. The comparison should illuminate rather than replace either text.
Jon.4.4
חָרָה frequently appears in idioms of anger being kindled or burning, often with אַף, a term that can refer to nose or anger. The resulting imagery can evoke heated breath or flared nostrils, but that is an explanatory picture rather than a complete lexical definition. Proposed connections with other heat roots should be treated cautiously. In Jonah 4 the construction הַהֵיטֵב חָרָה לָךְ asks whether Jonah’s anger is good or right, placing his response under moral evaluation within the narrative.
Ephesians 4:26-27 draws on Psalm 4 while commanding believers not to sin in anger or give the devil an opportunity. James 1:19-20 warns that human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. These passages provide direct Christian guidance without implying that all anger is morally neutral. Luke 15’s elder brother and Jonah both resent mercy extended beyond their preferred boundaries, making them a meaningful canonical comparison.
Their stories differ, however, and the father’s appeal in Luke should not be called a mirror or direct fulfillment of the Lord’s questions to Jonah.
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