To glow or grow warm ; figuratively (usually) to blaze up , of anger, zeal, jealousy
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חָרָה (ḥārāh) means to burn, to glow, to be kindled — but almost always in the sense of burning anger. The root evokes the physical sensation of heat: anger as fire, as something that blazes up internally before it expresses outward.
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Full entry for חָרָה (H2734) · Open the biblical lexicon
חָרָה (ḥārāh) means to burn, to glow, to be kindled — but almost always in the sense of burning anger. The root evokes the physical sensation of heat: anger as fire, as something that blazes up internally before it expresses outward.
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 (ḥārāh) means to burn, to glow, to be kindled — but almost always in the sense of burning anger. The root evokes the physical sensation of heat: anger as fire, as something that blazes up internally before it expresses outward. In the OT, ḥārāh describes both human anger and divine anger, and in both cases the word carries urgency and force — this is not mild displeasure but kindled, flaming wrath.
The most theologically arresting uses of ḥārāh involve the burning anger of God (wayyiḥar-ʾap YHWH — 'the anger of the Lord burned') at Israel's covenant-breaking, and — with remarkable frequency — the burning anger of human characters in moments of moral failure or wounded pride. Jonah is the sharpest case: God asks him twice 'Is your anger (ḥārāh) right?' (Jon 4:4, 9).
The prophet's anger burns against God's mercy toward Nineveh and then burns again at the death of the plant. God does not dismiss the anger but interrogates it — the divine question is not 'how dare you feel angry?' but rather 'is this the right thing to be burning about?' The OT's treatment of ḥārāh is pastorally sophisticated: anger itself is not condemned — God himself burns with it.
What matters is the object, the proportion, and the moral warrant for the burning. Jonah's anger fails the divine diagnostic not because it is too intense but because it is directed at grace.
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.
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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.
The question God asks Jonah — 'Is your anger right?' — is one of the most searching pastoral questions in Scripture, and it applies far beyond Jonah's specific situation. Anger itself is not the problem; God himself burns with ḥārāh at covenant-breaking, injustice, and idolatry. The question is diagnostic: what is this anger about, is the object worthy of the intensity, and is the burning serving truth or serving wounded pride?
Jonah's burning is directed at divine mercy — he wants Nineveh to be destroyed, and God's forgiveness of them feels like a betrayal of his prophetic credibility. The pastoral warning embedded in the Jonah narrative is that religious anger can be the most self-righteous and least self-aware anger of all. The preacher who only delivers judgment has a category for Nineveh's sin but no category for God's compassion toward sinners, and the ḥārāh that results when God shows that compassion reveals the deeper problem: a theology of divine wrath without a theology of divine mercy cannot account for the God of Exodus 34:6.
Jon.4.4
The root ḥārāh connects to the verb for burning heat (ḥārar) — the anger-word is literally a burning word. The formulaic expression wayyiḥar-ʾap (and his anger burned) uses the word ʾap (nose/nostril) as the seat of anger — the image is of flared nostrils with hot breath, the physical expression of burning internal heat. The cognate noun ḥārôn (burning anger, fierce anger) appears frequently alongside ʾap: ḥărôn ʾap YHWH (the burning anger of the Lord).
In Jonah 4, the question 'is your ḥārāh right?' (haheṭêb ḥārāh lāk) uses the verb yāṭab (to be good/right) as the standard — burning anger is evaluated by the same moral standard as everything else: is it good, is it warranted, does it align with what is truly right?
The NT's engagement with ḥārāh theology runs through Ephesians 4:26 ('be angry and do not sin'), which cites Psalm 4:4 — acknowledging that anger is not inherently sinful but must be governed. James 1:19-20's 'be slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God' is the most direct NT application of the Jonah diagnostic: human anger, particularly religious anger, is frequently not producing what is right before God.
The parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 contains the most vivid NT parallel to Jonah's burning anger: the elder brother burns when the father celebrates the returning younger son, and the father's response to him ('you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours') mirrors God's patient questioning of Jonah. In both cases, the religious insider's anger at grace extended to the outsider becomes the occasion for the deepest theological instruction of the narrative.
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