The Lord of Rage
God is furious.
Yahweh wants vengeance.
Yahweh’s taking vengeance.
He is the Lord of Rage!Based on Nahum 1:2
John Hobbins’ post on the prophecy of Nahum has really captured my imagination. In Are we talking about the same God? I compared Nahum’s venomous vision of a wrathful avenging Deity to the anemic, apologetic Christ at Heart’s Door depicted by Warner Sallman. Let me give you a warning. If Christ wants to come through the door of your heart he won’t pause long enough to check for a doorknob.
John Donne said it best:
Batter my heart, three personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I was captivated by one phrase in the opening lines of Nahum. Yahweh is called “the Lord of Rage.” First, I should say that the formula “lord of” can be deceptive for us. It can simply mean “owner.” In Ecclesiastes 10:20, birds are called “lords of wings.” In 2 Samuel 1:6, the Amalekite describes chariots and the “lords of horses” closing in on Saul. So on one hand it’s fine to translate these expressions with words like “birds” or “horsemen” but at the same time, Hebrew has a word for bird so I consider that an under-translation of the phrase “lords of wings.”
“Lord of rage” is used in one other place in the Old Testament. Proverbs 29:22 says, “A hot-tempered one commits many sins” (NIV). Literally it says, ”A lord of rage is overflowing in transgressions.” Yes, I know that’s not natural English but it has a certain poetic force that the NIV and other translations lack. God is depicted by Nahum not merely as passionate or hot-tempered but a “Lord of Rage.” That gives me shivers. I can respect a passionate God and steer clear of a hot-tempered one, but a Lord of Rage makes me shake in my boots. And I think that is the reaction Nahum was hoping for. This isn’t Mr. Rogers sweetly singing, “I’m angry. I’m angry. I’m angry at you.” This is the Lord of Rage and he’s angry at you!
At the heart of this raging poem is an unexpected place of calm, the eye of the storm:
Yahweh is good.
A refuge in the day of trouble.
He cares for those who hide in him.
So we are the ones who are knocking at the door. Not knocking. Pounding and pleading to escape from the wrath of the Lord of Rage. And find refuge in God.
awesome – and yes to Donne – bravo – be at peace – I send you my sympathy re Chaka. Dogs are always happy to see you. Behemoth and Leviathan – God’s pets.
Thanks, Bob. Wonderful elliptic comment. I’m not happy with the translation of “qanno” but “jealous” doesn’t work for me here.
If God has a human form, would He be Warner Sallman’s blond, blue eyed compassionate figure, or a Osama Bin Laden look-a -like? I would rather not confine my God to an Earthly, human form but believe that He is Spirit that is not limited to my imagination.
I’m not really happy about translating the Hebrew word ba`al used here as “lord”, let alone “Lord” with a capital letter as a divine title. This is not one of the well known divine titles like Yahweh/Jehovah or Adonai. It is not even the word ‘adon commonly used for human lords or rulers. Rather, ba`al (when not a name of a Canaanite deity) is a rather common word meaning “master” or “owner”, also “husband”; “lord” is not used in modern English in any of these senses, except perhaps in fixed British phrases like “lord of the manor”.
I would suggest something like “master of rage” here. However, this kind of expression with ba`al followed by an abstract noun may lead to a meaning no more than “raging one”, as clearly in Proverbs 29:22. It should certainly not be understood as a new divine title “Lord of Rage”.
Points well taken, Peter. I would suggest that the position of ba’al in the midst of all the other God titles in that line does elevate it to a sort of divine title. At least I would like to assert that it was evocative for original hearers in a way that “master” or “owner” is not. Because of “Lord of the Rings”, modern English-speakers have an emotional reaction with “Lord of” phrases that I’m trying to tap into here. Anxiety. Awe. Uneasiness. Quite possibly the same reaction of the original hearers to Yahweh being described as “Raging One” or “Lord of Rage.”
Conservatively, I think it could be rendered “He is furious” which I used for the problematic “jealous.” How to translate “qanno”? I still am puzzled by that one!
I am very much the learner in this area and maybe I should have made that clearer in my post.
I see what you mean about “Lord of the Rings”, but remember that that lord was Sauron. But then of course for the original hearers ba`al used of God would have been evocative of the Canaanite Baals.
I think “furious” is OK for qanno’ in this context where you also bring out the idea of vengeance.
“Lord of Rage” definitely has things going for it. Since there is probably a play on Baal here, as both Peter and I have noted, the Lord of Sauron association is not totally off.
I think part of what is going on as the faith of Israel took on its competitors was to say: you think your god Baal is a bad dude. Yahweh, let me assure you, is worse.
Combine that with the conviction that Yahweh is also gracious, good, and sweet to those who wait for him, and you have the makings of, to make a long story short, monotheism, that is, a God for all seasons. That, at least, is how God revealed himself to people of Israel.
“Furious” for qanno’ works fine for the immediate context, but not so well for the confession of faith that is alluded to in this passage (Exod 20:5; 34:14). Concordance of translation across the relevant passages would be preferable, but is not easy to achieve, except perhaps with “jealous,” but the term for most people sends up unhelpful red flags more than anything else.
Translation is a messy business. It’s easier sometimes to bang the original into one’s RAM files, that is, to have the Hebrew at one’s mental fingertips.
Hurray, John commented.! (Even if I had to beg…) I’ll check out the Ex. passages. You’re almost… inspiring me to dip into the big H.