StrongerBible

ḥaron

חָרוֹן

HebrewH2740fierce anger, wrath, ...

Appears 41 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 15:7Exo 32:12Num 25:4Num 32:14Deu 13:17(18)Jos 7:261Sa 28:182Ki 23:262Ch 28:112Ch 28:132Ch 29:102Ch 30:8Ezr 10:14Neh 13:18Psa 2:5Psa 58:9(10)Psa 88:16(17)Ezk 7:12Ezk 7:14
Root family
Word studykhah-ROHNnoun

What ḥaron means

burning anger: wrath pictured as a fierce, blazing heat, and in the Bible almost always God's.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This word paints anger as heat. It comes from a root that means to grow hot or to burn, and it names not just that someone is angry but that the anger blazes. English Bibles reach for phrases like fierce anger, burning anger, or hot displeasure to catch that intensity.

Almost every time it appears, the anger is God's. It usually stands in a set phrase that pictures anger flaring in the face, so the whole expression means something like the heat of his anger. Writers speak of this burning anger being kindled, poured out, sent, carried out, or, again and again, turned away when people repent.

So the word is less about a settled mood than about anger at full heat, the moment when judgment is ready to fall. The prophets use it for the day when God finally acts against sin. The narratives use it for a blaze that repentance can still cool, as when Jonah hopes God will turn from his fierce anger and spare Nineveh.

Exo 15:7Exo 32:12Num 25:4Num 32:14Deu 13:17(18)Jos 7:261Sa 28:182Ki 23:262Ch 28:112Ch 28:132Ch 29:102Ch 30:8

What scholars say about ḥaron

The standard critical lexicons (BDB, HALOT) gloss this noun as the burning or heat of anger, derived from the root חרה, to be hot or to burn with anger. It is used almost exclusively of divine wrath, most often in the fixed construct phrase חֲרוֹן אַף, literally the heat of the nose or anger, in which אַף (the nose or face, taken as the seat of flaring anger) supplies the anthropomorphic image. The theological dictionaries (TDOT and TWOT, under חרה) treat the whole word group together and note the recurring idiom of God's fierce anger being kindled, poured out, or turned away (šûb ḥărôn ʾap), concentrated in Deuteronomistic narrative, the prophetic judgment oracles, and the Day of the LORD material (Isaiah 13; Zephaniah 2 to 3). Psalm 58:9 (Hebrew 58:10) is a recognized textual and lexical crux: within the obscure simile kĕmô ḥay kĕmô ḥārôn the word may retain a more literal sense of burning or heat rather than anger, and the verse is variously emended and rendered. Apart from that verse the lexicons register no live disagreement over the word's sense.

Sources

  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. חָרוֹןlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. חָרוֹןlexicon
  • Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), s.v. חרהtheological-dictionary
  • Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT), s.v. חרהtheological-dictionary
  • New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE), s.v. חרהtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of חָרוֹן

m s construct

חֲרוֹן

Exo 32:12, Num 25:4, Num 32:14, Deu 13:17, Jos 7:26, 1Sa 28:18, 2Ki 23:26, 2Ch 28:11

m s absolute

חָרוֹן

Neh 13:18, Psa 58:9, Ezk 7:12

m p construct

חֲרוֹנֶיךָ

Psa 88:16

m s construct

חֲרוֹנִי

Ezk 7:14

m s construct

חֲרֹנְךָ

Exo 15:7

m s construct

חֲרוֹנוֹ

Psa 2:5