anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 13:4

But the King of kings aroused the anger of Antiochus against the scoundrel: The King of kings may be translated “God, the King of kings” (Good News Bible). Aroused the anger of Antiochus against the scoundrel means God did something to make Antiochus turn against the scoundrel Menelaus. In Good News Bible the idea of the scoundrel is moved into the next sentence and rendered as “this criminal.” That works, but there is no reason not to keep the idea in this sentence; for example, “But God, the King of kings, made Antiochus furious with this evil man” or “But God, the King of kings caused Antiochus to become very angry with this evil man.”

And when Lysias informed him that this man was to blame for all the trouble: Perhaps Lysias realized that in Jewish eyes, Menelaus was not eligible or qualified to be High Priest, and his appointment was responsible for all the trouble the Jews were causing the government. We may render this clause as “Lysias told the king that Menelaus was the cause of all his [or, the king’s] problems with the Jews.”

He ordered them to take him to Beroea and to put him to death: He ordered them may be expressed as “Antiochus ordered some of his men.” This Beroea is not the Beroea of the New Testament, nor the Berea of 1Macc 9.4. It was a Syrian city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Antioch, the site of modern Aleppo (Halab).

By the method which is the custom in that place: Although Beroea was a Syrian city, the method of execution described in verses 5-6 was Persian in origin. An alternative model for this clause and the previous one is “Antiochus ordered some of his men to take Menelaus to the city of Beroea. There they were to execute him in a way that was done there.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.