What Does Psalm 79:5 Mean in the King James?
How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse turns divine jealousy into a fire, then dares to ask whether it must burn forever.
THE MEANING
Your question about whether God’s anger will ever end is the pulse of this verse. The burning remains fully named, while “How long?” refuses to treat the feeling of forever as a settled answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that direct protest toward God is faithlessness; the verse makes that protest its prayer.
THE ROOT
קִנְאָתֶךָ
qin'atecha
GROWS FROM
קנא
To be zealous or jealous.
The Hebrew word holds jealousy and zeal in one root. The verse gives that shared fervor the image of fire, so “jealousy” carries an intensity beyond a private feeling.
ALSO GROWS
qinne': To be zealous or jealous.
קִנֵּא
The verb shows the active force held in the noun “jealousy.”
qanna': Zealous or jealous.
קַנָּא
This related form makes clear that zeal and jealousy belong to the same word-family.
תִּבְעַר
tiv'ar
GROWS FROM
בער
To burn, kindle, or consume.
“burn” in this verse is tiv'ar. The verse uses a direct verb of burning and makes jealousy its subject: the fire is the action happening to it, not just decoration around it. The same root also describes the burning bush, where flame is present without consuming the bush.
ALSO GROWS
ba'ar: To burn or consume.
בָּעַר
This verb is the seed of the verse’s image of jealousy burning like fire.
bo'er: Burning; used of the bush burning in Exodus 3:2.
בֹּעֵר
The burning bush shows this root at work in another image of fire.
THE PATTERN
Lament brings divine delay into the open by asking God directly how long the unbearable condition will continue.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?THE THREAD
How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?Both verses use בער (ba’ar), “to burn,” in the question “burn like fire.” Psalm 89:46 names wrath where Psalm 79:5 names jealousy, so the shared fire and “How long?” make both lines pleas about whether God’s burning will continue without end.
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