22 Bible Verses About Anger

Psalm 4:4

“Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah”

Reflection: David is speaking to the “men” who, in verse 2, turn his honor into shame and “love vain words and seek after lies.” The line allows the anger and attaches conditions to it: no sin, a night of reflection on the bed, silence, and then, in verse 5, “offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.” Ephesians 4:26 repeats the opening words.

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.”

Reflection: Paul repeats Psalm 4:4 in a list of habits for people who have “put away falsehood” and speak the truth with their neighbors (verse 25). He adds a time limit, sundown, and a second command beside it: “give no opportunity to the devil.” Five verses later the same chapter tells its readers to put away “bitterness and wrath and anger” and to forgive one another “as God in Christ forgave you” (4:31-32).

Mark 3:5

“And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”

Reflection: On a Sabbath in a synagogue, the Pharisees (named in verse 6) watched to see whether Jesus would heal a man with a withered hand, “so that they might accuse him.” When he asked whether it was lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, they were silent. Mark records the anger together with grief “at their hardness of heart,” and what Jesus did next was heal the man.

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.”

Reflection: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets this beside the old command “You shall not murder” (verse 21) and gives anger at a brother the consequence the saying attached to murder: liability to judgment. Insults are tied to the council and to “the hell of fire.” The next two verses tell a worshipper who remembers a brother’s grievance to leave the gift at the altar and “first be reconciled.” The King James Version reads “angry with his brother without a cause”; the ESV does not have those words.

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.”

Reflection: “Fits of anger” stands in Paul’s list of the works of the flesh beside enmity, strife, jealousy, rivalries, dissensions and divisions, sins committed against other people. The list ends with the warning that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The fruit of the Spirit named next includes patience, gentleness and self-control (verses 22-23).

Colossians 3:8

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

Reflection: Verse 6 says that “the wrath of God is coming” on account of sexual immorality, covetousness and the rest; verse 8 then tells believers to put away their own anger and wrath. The list ends with sins of the mouth, slander and “obscene talk from your mouth,” and verse 9 adds “Do not lie to one another.” Paul describes the change as putting off the old self and putting on the new (3:9-10).

Titus 1:7

“For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.”

Reflection: Paul left Titus in Crete to appoint elders in every town (1:5), and this verse is part of the standard for them. “Quick-tempered” sits between “arrogant” and “a drunkard,” and the list that follows asks for a man who is “self-controlled” and “disciplined” (1:8). A quick temper rules a man out of the office.

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.”

Reflection: James puts three instructions in order: quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. The reason he gives is that human anger “does not produce the righteousness of God.” Verse 21 tells the same readers to “receive with meekness the implanted word.”

Proverbs 14:29

“Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.”

Reflection: Proverbs places temper among the marks of wisdom and folly. A slow temper is evidence of “great understanding”; a hasty one “exalts folly.” Proverbs 15:18, 16:32 and 19:11 also praise being slow to anger.

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.”

Reflection: The comparison is with soldiers: a person slow to anger is better than “the mighty,” and one who rules his own spirit is better than a conqueror who “takes a city.” Proverbs 25:28 uses the reverse picture for a man without self-control: “a city broken into and left without walls.”

Proverbs 19:11

“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.”

Reflection: Two things are credited to good sense here: slowness to anger and the willingness to overlook an offense. The second half calls overlooking an offense a person’s “glory.”

Proverbs 29:11

“A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.”

Reflection: The verse does not use the word anger. It sets a fool who “gives full vent to his spirit” against a wise man who “quietly holds it back,” and Proverbs 16:32 uses the same English word, spirit, for what the person slow to anger rules.

Ecclesiastes 7:9

“Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.”

Reflection: The Preacher’s warning follows a comparison in verse 8: “the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” His concern is speed, being “quick in your spirit to become angry.” The verb “lodges” describes anger that settles in a fool’s heart and stays there.

Proverbs 15:1

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Reflection: The proverb is about the reply given to someone. A soft answer “turns away wrath,” and a harsh word “stirs up anger”: the same moment in a conversation can end a quarrel or start one.

Proverbs 15:18

“A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.”

Reflection: Later in the same chapter, the contrast moves from words to people. The hot-tempered man starts strife, and the one who is slow to anger “quiets contention,” settling a quarrel that is already under way.

Proverbs 30:33

“For pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife.”

Reflection: The last verse of Proverbs 30 uses three pictures of pressing: milk into curds, a nose into blood, anger into strife. Verse 32 gives the advice that goes with it: anyone who has been foolish, exalting himself, or “devising evil” should “put your hand on your mouth.”

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.”

Reflection: The warning is about company. Anger is presented as something learned: time spent with “a man given to anger” teaches his ways, and the result is a snare for the one who learns them.

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.”

Reflection: The law sets out two ways to respond to a neighbor’s wrong. Hating him in the heart, taking vengeance and bearing a grudge are forbidden; reasoning frankly with him is commanded. The passage ends with “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” the command Jesus names as the second after loving God (Matthew 22:39).

Psalm 37:8

“Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.”

Reflection: David’s psalm opens “Fret not yourself because of evildoers” (37:1), and the anger in verse 8 is anger at wrongdoers who prosper. He gives two reasons to let it go: fretting “tends only to evil,” and, in verse 9, “the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

Romans 12:19

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

Reflection: Paul tells those who have been wronged to leave the matter “to the wrath of God,” and supports it with Deuteronomy 32:35, “Vengeance is mine.” The next verse quotes Proverbs 25:21-22 on feeding a hungry enemy, and the chapter closes with “overcome evil with good” (12:21).

1 Peter 2:23

“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

Reflection: Peter is writing to servants who suffer under unjust masters (2:18-20), and he holds up Christ as their example (2:21). When reviled, Christ did not revile in return or threaten; he kept “entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

Jonah 4:4

“And the Lord said, ‘Do you do well to be angry?’”

Reflection: Jonah is angry because God spared Nineveh when its people turned from their evil way (3:10). He prays using God’s own description of himself, “gracious” and “merciful, slow to anger,” and asks to die (4:2-3). God answers with this question, asks it again about the plant (4:9), and the book ends with a further question from God about his pity for Nineveh (4:11).