51 Bible Verses About Anger

All of us get angry now and then. Sometimes we are filled with a righteous anger when we see people wronged. Other times we are filled with a sinful, selfish anger when something doesn’t go our way. It can be difficult to process anger and know when it is and is not appropriate to be angry. In fact, it’s easy to sometimes be angry at God, even. Parents often must wrestle with how to lovingly lead angry children. Amidst our often complicated relationship with anger, we can trust God to be our stronghold. Thankfully, the Bible has a lot to say about anger, and we can learn much from what it says about God’s anger, too. Let’s dig in.

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What Does the Bible Say About Anger?

Old Testament

Genesis 49:6–7
Let my soul come not into their council;
O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.

Exodus 34:6–7
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’

Leviticus 19:17-18
You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

2 Kings 17:18
Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.

Nehemiah 9:17
They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

Job 36:13
The godless in heart cherish anger;
they do not cry for help when he binds them.

Psalm 7:11
God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.

Psalm 37:8–9
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.

Proverbs 10:12
Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offenses.

Proverbs 13:10
By insolence comes nothing but strife,
but with those who take advice is wisdom.

Proverbs 14:29
Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding,
but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

Proverbs 15:1
A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.

Proverbs 16:32
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Proverbs 20:3
It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife,
but every fool will be quarreling.

Proverbs 22:24–25
Make no friendship with a man given to anger,
nor go with a wrathful man,
lest you learn his ways
and entangle yourself in a snare.

Proverbs 27:4
Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming,
but who can stand before jealousy?

Proverbs 29:11
A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Ecclesiastes 7:9
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the heart of fools.

Isaiah 30:30
And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.

Jeremiah 3:12b
Return, faithless Israel,
declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,
declares the Lord;
I will not be angry forever.

Lamentations 2:1
How the Lord in his anger
has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
He has cast down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.

Lamentations 4:11
The LORD gave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger,
and he kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.

Ezekiel 22:20
As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.

Ezekiel 38:18
But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, my wrath will be roused in my anger.

Jonah 4:2
And he prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.’

Micah 7:18
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.

Nahum 1:3
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Nahum 1:6
Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

Zephaniah 3:8
‘Therefore wait for me,’ declares the LORD,
for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy
all the earth shall be consumed.

Zechariah 10:3
My anger is hot against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;
for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah,
and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.

New Testament

Matthew 5:22
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.

Galatians 5:19–21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 4:26-27
Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Colossians 3:8
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

1 Timothy 2:8
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

James 1:19-20
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

James 4:1-2
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.