A burning of anger
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H2740 is a Hebrew noun for burning anger, fierce wrath, fury, or intense displeasure, used especially of the Lord's response to covenant evil. Hosea 11:9 says God will not execute the full fury of His anger against Ephraim because He is God and not man, placing holiness and compassion together.
Reader summary
Full entry for חָרוֹן (H2740) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2740 is a Hebrew noun for burning anger, fierce wrath, fury, or intense displeasure, used especially of the Lord's response to covenant evil. Hosea 11:9 says God will not execute the full fury of His anger against Ephraim because He is God and not man, placing holiness and compassion together.
The BSB source-word alignment has 41 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include His fierce (2), His fury (2), so that His fierce anger (2), the burning (2), the fierce anger (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 15:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (9), Psalms (6), 2 Chronicles (4), Exodus (2).
H2740 is a Hebrew noun for burning anger, fierce wrath, fury, or intense displeasure, used especially of the Lord's response to covenant evil. Hosea 11:9 says God will not execute the full fury of His anger against Ephraim because He is God and not man, placing holiness and compassion together. Exodus 32:12 records Moses pleading for the Lord to turn from fierce anger after Israel's golden calf, within a narrative of judgment and intercession.
Nahum 1:6 asks who can withstand the Lord's indignation and burning anger as the prophet announces judgment on violent Nineveh. Other uses concern idolatry, oppression, bloodshed, national catastrophe, repentance, and wrath turned away. H2740 opens divine holiness, covenant judgment, mercy, intercession, and human accountability. It corrects projections of uncontrolled human rage onto God and attempts to borrow divine wrath language to justify personal vengeance, cruelty, or political violence.
H2740 names heat or burning intensity in anger, most often divine anger within covenant and prophetic contexts. It is tied to particular evils and narrated purposes, not a free-standing picture of unpredictable temper or human permission to retaliate.
I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man—the Holy One among you—and I will not come in wrath.
God declares that He will not execute the full fury of anger against Ephraim, grounding restraint in His divine holiness and presence.
Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.
Moses intercedes after the golden calf and asks the Lord to turn from fierce anger and relent from bringing disaster on His people.
Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.
Nahum portrays the Lord's burning anger against evil in an oracle that confronts the violent Assyrian power of Nineveh.
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. Intense, consuming anger—often God's wrathful response to covenant violation or idolatry
Intense, consuming anger—often God's wrathful response to covenant violation or idolatry
a burning of anger BDB: anger Usage: sore displeasure, fierce(-ness), fury, (fierce) wrath(-ful).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 41 lexical occurrence verses.
חָרוֹן 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.
H2740 gives weight to God's opposition to evil without turning rage into a virtue for powerful people. The burning language communicates that idolatry, exploitation, bloodshed, and covenant betrayal are not morally trivial. Nahum's hearers lived under an empire known for violence, so divine judgment is not merely an abstract threat; it is hope that terror will not rule forever.
Yet Hosea 11 refuses to picture God as a human ruler swept along by fury. God's holiness appears in compassion and restraint as well as judgment. Exodus places intercession inside the covenant relationship after grave rebellion. Readers should neither domesticate these texts nor deploy them against chosen enemies. A preacher cannot identify a disaster, illness, military campaign, or political opponent as the target of God's burning anger without textual warrant.
Christian response to evil includes truth, protection, lawful justice, lament, repentance, and mercy. It excludes abuse, vigilantism, and emotional intimidation dressed as prophetic zeal.
Hos.11.9
H2740 is a masculine noun related to burning and commonly appears in phrases translated fierce anger, burning anger, or fury. Its collocations intensify wrath, while narrative and prophetic context identify the offense, agent, and possibility of turning or restraint.
The New Testament continues to speak of God's righteous judgment while locating vengeance with God, commanding enemies to be loved, and presenting Christ as judge and bearer of saving mercy. Human anger is repeatedly subjected to restraint, truth, and reconciliation.