Be agitated
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ἐμβριμάομαι (embrimaomai) expresses a forceful response that may be heard as stern warning, indignation, deep agitation, or strong inward movement. The object and scene decide how the force should be described.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐμβριμάομαι (G1690) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἐμβριμάομαι (embrimaomai) expresses a forceful response that may be heard as stern warning, indignation, deep agitation, or strong inward movement. The object and scene decide how the force should be described.
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include deeply moved (1), He was deeply moved (1), they scolded (1), warned them sternly (1), with a stern warning (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:30. Its strongest book concentrations include John (2), Mark (2), Matthew (1).
ἐμβριμάομαι (embrimaomai) expresses a forceful response that may be heard as stern warning, indignation, deep agitation, or strong inward movement. The object and scene decide how the force should be described. Mark 1:43 uses the verb when Jesus sternly warns the healed man before sending him away. John 11 uses it twice as Jesus encounters Mary's grief, the mourners, and Lazarus's tomb.
English translations often render the Johannine uses as deeply moved, but the verb carries more force than detached sympathy. Interpreters debate whether indignation, grief, agitation, or a combination is foregrounded. John does not identify one psychological object with modern precision. The word therefore reveals the intensity of Jesus' engagement with death and sorrow while requiring restraint.
He is neither emotionally absent nor available for speculative reconstruction.
ἐμβριμάομαι marks a forceful response whose expression ranges from stern warning to deep agitation or indignation. John repeats it at Lazarus's tomb to show Jesus' intense engagement with death and grief.
Jesus promptly sent him away with a stern warning:
The verb carries an outwardly stern force as Jesus directs the healed man concerning testimony and the priestly requirement.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
Mary's grief and the mourners' weeping meet a powerful response in Jesus that John joins with inner trouble.
Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
The repeated verb carries the intensity to the tomb immediately before Jesus commands the stone to be removed and calls Lazarus out.
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. Snort with deep feeling; express strong emotion—anger, stern admonition—through forceful speech or action.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I snort, express indignant displeasure
Read verseI snort, express indignant displeasure
Read verseI snort, express indignant displeasure
Read verseI snort, express indignant displeasure
Read verseI snort, express indignant displeasure
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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 5 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)
ἐμβριμάομαι is built from this root:
The force of ἐμβριμάομαι matters because John 11 is not merely a demonstration of power. Jesus enters a scene of real bereavement, sees Mary and the mourners weeping, is deeply moved in spirit, troubles Himself, weeps, and again approaches the tomb with the same strong response. The narrative does not portray the resurrection and the life as untouched by the misery He will overcome.
At the same time, interpreters should not make one lexical item prove a complete account of Jesus' inner psychology. Mark 1:43 shows that the verb can express stern outward warning, which confirms its force but does not settle the exact emphasis in John. The Johannine context includes sorrow, unbelief, death, love, and the approaching sign. Faithful teaching preserves that density: Jesus is holy, loving, troubled before death, and sovereign enough to call the dead man out.
John.11.28-44
The verb has a forceful quality and can denote sternness, indignation, or deep agitation. English 'deeply moved' captures intensity but may understate the edge present in the word. Lexical range cannot by itself identify whether anger, grief, or another response is dominant in John 11.
The prophets portray the Lord as neither indifferent to His people's misery nor morally neutral toward death and unbelief. John presents the incarnate Son entering grief and confronting the tomb with sovereign authority. The canonical connection concerns God's holy compassion and victory, not a claim that one Hebrew emotion word directly equals ἐμβριμάομαι.