Chapter 6

Godas (Angry) Warrior

Recently1 I was leading a church

workshop on "Reading the Bible as
Adult." The premise of the worksho an
p was that many Christians have nev
gotten beyond their childhood under er
standings of biblical stories and Ch
ian faith in general. We were experime rist-
nting with reading the stories of David
and Goliath and Jonah and the Big Fis
h in ways that relate to the concerns
adult lives. of
During a break, a retired pastor kin
dly but firmly grasped my arm and
implored, "What can I do with the im
age of God as a warrior in the Old Tes
tament?" Even though the violence of -
the Old Testament was not the topic for
the,day, he desperately hoped that an
Old Testament scholar could answer
question that continued to trouble him the
. This man was a seminary graduate and
a gifted minister who had preached and
taught the Bible for more than thirty-
five years, but he still had no idea abo
ut how to think or talk about the image
of God as a violent warrior.
That pastor is not alone. While some
Christians find no problem with envi-
sioning God as violent, most of the
people I encounter recoil from suc
images. ln fact, in my experience the h
one thing that most troubles people abo
the Old Testament is its violence. Peop ut
le regularly plead with me to say som
thing positive about the violence of e-
the conquest of the land in the boo
of loshua, the violence of God's sm k
iting of the people with a plague in
book of Numbers, and of course, the the
violence of God's angry tirades in th
Prophetic Books. e
There are a whole host of reasons tha .
t Christians and non-ChriSrians ali~e
resist such images. Most Christians, for
love and th instance, have been taught that God is
at Jesus taught followers to denoun · 1ence· they are sure that
Gdod cannot really be like the enrage ce v10 ,
d, vengef ul warrior tba~ f pfirophedts
. ribe. For some reading these texts . b k b d memonestbe
esc
o re-an -
bn t ' bnngs ac a
tnS one preachers who try to scare people into subffils · · b threatem.ng
sion Y

101
' 102 Challenging Prophetic Metaphor

. d
.th G0 d's pending wrath. These folks want nothing of punitive
tbem wi th.
ers and no mg o
f a punitive God, and they often leave traditional Chripr~ach.
. h h
t away from both. Whtle umans ave a1ways feared
stianity
m or er to geany people today beheve . th
at g
1b 1 . 1
o a v10 ence
.
1s on the
War
.
anct
bloodshed , m . d' . . dh nse anct
1 held religious behefs fue1 1v1s1on an atred. Many peo 1
that strong Y . f f . . P e are
.d f ar and violence and are afrrud o any aspect o rehg1ous langua
afrai o w . . . h . ge that
the potential to enflame rehg1ous zeal agrunst t e enemy. Fmally, many
has . . hi h . peo-
le see anger itself as a negative emotion, somet ng t at rational and controU
p h . 1· If . ed
people can and should eradicate from t. eir 1~es_. anger 1s no~ a good thing for
humans, then certainly it has no place 1n Christian understandmg of God.
For those who read the Prophetic Books and pay special attention to the
fate of women, the problems of the image of God as warrior run deeper still.
ln the prophetic depictions of the punishment that God the Warrior will exact,
the one who receives punishment is usually described in feminine terms:
when Judah, Israel, or the nations are slated for destruction, they become
women, and the language used for their devastation is that of graphic sexual
assault. God's vengeance ori those who oppose the divine will is portrayed as
a warrior's sexual humiliation of a woman.
If a reader does not condone violence, war, and/or violence against women,
what value can come from reading texts that describe a deity as angry and
vengeful? How can feminists value the image of a Rambo-like, testosterone-
crazed God who threatens to destroy all who challenge bis honor and his
absolute control? ln a world such as ours, the stakes for reading these texts
seem very high.
Precisely because the stakes are so high and because our own issues are so
pressing, it seems appropriate to pay careful attention to the contours of these
particular texts before we consider our response to them. How do the
Prophetic Books depict the Divine Warrior? How do these texts work? What
ideologies inform them?

The Divine Warrior in the Prophets

There is no escaping the image of God the Avenging Warrior in the Prophets.
~e s;:aces in Isa~ah, in J eremiah, in Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Am:os-to ~~
0

g . e or ano tber m every Prophetic Book To be fair the Prophetic Books

~rov1de captivating images of hope salva~ion and p~ace-of swords be~ten
mto plowshares of . . , , of 1tons
ly. d . ' every man s1tt1ng under bis own vine and fig tree, ali the
p mgh ~wn W 1th lambs, of a future of peace and justice But mo st of d
rop ettc Books launch scathing rebukes of humans ~d their actions an
 God as (Angry) Warrior 103

od's puni shm ent on their unfaithfulness. God is angry not just a
unce G
ann0 . but a Iot, in the Prophets.
Iittle bit,
Else whe re in the Cano n
ior. ln orde r
th parts of the bibli cal cano n also desc ribe Yahweh as a warr
O e;
to se
the distinct way that hthe Prop . .
hets use this image, a look at the Warrior
.
. the Hebrew Bible as a w o1e 1s 1nstruct1ve.
his suc-
Aline of scholars train ed at Harv ard unde r Fran k Moore Cross and
10

. This "Har-
cessors has argued that the Divi ne Warrior moti f evolved over time
in texts dated
vard school" maintains that the first stage of the moti f is reflected
ayed as bat-
to the earliest periods of Israe l's history. Here, the Warrior is portr
t the vocabu-
tling other gods and personified cosmic forces. These texts adop
and challenge
lary of the mythologies of othe r ancient near Eastern cultures
s by po~i ting Yahw eh's ultim ate pow er over all othe r powe i's. 1
their claim
formed as
ln both Canaanite and Baby lonia n mythologies, the world was
the god Baal
the result of combat betw een gods. ln the Canaanite account,
the Babylon-
fought and defeated Yam (Sea) to create orde r in the world; in
ian myth, the god Mar duk slew the chao s monster Tiamat
and created the
uage in praise
heaven and the earth from her body. Biblical texts adapt this lang
from com-
ofYahweh. Exodus 15 ·and Deut. 33, for example, seem to draw
who tri-
mon ancient Near East ern mythological motifs to portray a deity
s of dragons
umphs against cosmic forces; in Ps. 74, Yahweh breaks the head
and of the beast Leviathan; and in Ps. 89 Yahweh roles the sea
and crushes the
mythical Rahab.
ars in bibli-
Toe second stage in the deve lopm ent of the warrior moti f appe
cal texts written during the monarchy. Here, the Divine Warr
ior supports the
that Yah-
power of the Davidic king. For example, Ps. 18 recounts the ways
med with
Weh strengthens the king for battle. Whe n the king was overwhel
Woes ' Yah weh desce nded, from on high to grant dehv · erance: "H e de1·1vered
rne from my strong enemy, / and from those who hated me; / for they were
too .
.
Thg~ty for me" (Ps. 18: 17).
a new, third
stag : arvard school expl ains that the Prophetic Books mark
rnot~ in_ the development of the Divine-Warrior motif. Whi le mythological
hs hnge r th d' · ctive contribution of the prophet1c · mate n·al s was to
Portr '
ay the o·ivme ·
e 1stin
as willi ng to
· evil inside the commum·ty as
fight
WeJJ War rior · h
as 1d e 1·t. ln keep ing with the prop hetic task ofJudgip.ent, the prop ets
outs·
Portra
. .
Thi 6~~ eh as the cham pion of justi ce-a gain st all foes.
tic htera-
tUre. ln 0 :,ne~ War rior ?1otif reach~s its final stage in _apocalyp
. 7 12, certain passages 10 Isa. 56-6 6, and ulttmately m the New
 -·'
-.
\

.'· '\·- ; -·: . .. .... ....

\ ' '\ .\,
. '-..li
'"
~

~ \;:
-~
... :'[ ·- .. -:: -~ .:
'"

hetic Metaphor
104 Challenging prop Warrior's p0 rs
. th e co sm ic sc op e ofhth e we

' -r. tament book stage

ies take center_
ag
ain
taken by unr
elentt
defend bis people agat
O
f Revelatt0n, er atu re af fin ns th at w en th e world is over-

ng ev
Th ' lit
is
·. va hw eh th.e w
tl, .r,
·nst their enem1es.
ar
.
no r w1
·11 d'isr up t h uman histo
ry to

ts
The W ar rio r in th e Pr op he
ent an
pe rsu ad ed th at th e Di vi ne -W ar rio r m ot if underw
f under-
11Y tion the pr es en tat io n of th e Ha rv ar d sc ho ol does
Wbile I ~ not u 1 , . d1. fferent wa ys 1n . d. " .
111erent s1tuations
unbro ke n Itnea r ev o u nc tio n 1n
·mage can fu Je o f th e W.am·or m · (re-)estab-
(1 ) th ªt the l
s fo cu s on th e ro
scodre( ) that the Prophetic Book
an
2 . . . .
al i fo es . . y tha t the
lishing justice againstcru cia l fo r un de rst an di ng _ th e d1st1nct1ve wa
This last point is t1 c Bo ok s. ln th es e books, the
tio ns in th e Pr op he
Divine-Warrior image func ns ist en t pa tte m : ( 1) there
is injus-
vin e W arr ior fo llo ws a co
march of the Di it; (2) th at in ju sti ce enrages Ya
h-
co mm un ity or ou tsi de
tice, either inside the or ch es tra te th e destructions of
ra ge lea ds hi m to
weh; and (3) Yahweh's
lly thr ou gh the me an s of m ili ta ry de fe at by ot he rs.
nations, usua

Step 1: Injustice
ap pe ar in th e pr op he tic de sc rip tio ns of the War-
~ le cosmological motif s e. Cos-
ay s se t in the co nt ex t of th e ad m in ist ra tio n of justic
nor, ~e y are alw th eo ph an ie s, in wh ic h Ya
hweh's
ap pe ar m os t of te n in
mologtcal elements hw eh fig ht s Ri ve r and Sea,
. ln Ha ba kk uk 3, Ya
a~ e: an ce shakes the earth hets, God
th e na me s of Ca na an ite de iti es . Th ro ug ho ut th e Prop
w c ar_e also
appearsHa m a sto nn as mo unt ai_. ns and h'ill s sh ak e an d th e ea rth heaves (Nah.
1:2-8; b. 3. Am .
these cases, Ya hw e~ Isa
ea
.
rs
1'
29 , 5?= l5 a- 18 ; 63: 1- 6; Ze ph . 3: 17 ). But, in all of
to ng ht th e wr on gs of th e wo
rld .
y in wh ich {p y of
Th is da
ah we h_ ac ts fo r th e sa ke of ju st ic e is ca lle d "the da1
Yahweh"; in Eng!'18h fY an-
. translations ' "the d ay of th e LO RD " To e milita
guage m Isa. 13.4- 13 s th at th is fa te fu l d~ y is th e day of rec
k-
º~ er fu lly sh ow
oning by the Di~ine ,E vvamor:
Listen, a tumult
as of a great C::º1 ~he mo
!
untains
Listen a u htu de
' n uproar of ki ngdoms,
of nations ath .
er!
The LORD of io st8er.mg togeth·
an is mustenn g
T anny for battl
hey come fro m a d' e.
from the enct f istant lan ct
o the heav s '
en
'
 Goct as (A
ngry) W: .
oRD and the weapons of his indi'g . éltrior 105
the L h 1 • nation
'
to destroy the w o e earth.
,,, .1 &0 r the day ofdthe LORD is near·
vYa1 , i 1 'k . ,
·t will come h e estruction from the AI. .
r:erefore all hands will be feeble, mighty !
and every human heart will melt,
and they will be dismayed.
pangs and ago~y will ~eiz~ them;
they will be 1n angu1sh hke a woman in labor
They will look aghast at one another; ·
their faces will be aflame.
See, the day of the LORD comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation,
and to destroy its sinners from it.

As stressed by the H~var_d school, the Warrior can march either against the
nations or the commun1ty 1tself. The classic example of th~ former is the
prophetic Oracles against the Nations, in which Yahweh announces pending
judgment on countries such as Egypt, Babylon, Moab, and Edom. For exam-
ple, Amos 1-2, Isa. 13-23, and Ezek. 25-32 announce Yahweh'sjudgmenton
aseries of nations. Jeremiah 46 begins with the explanation that these are the
words that Yahweh speaks conceming the nations:
That day is the day of the Lord Goo of hosts,
a day of retribution,
to gain vindication from his foes.
The sword shall devour and be sated,
and drink its fill of their blood.
For the Lord Goo of hosts holds a sacrifice
in the land of the north by the river Euphrates.
(46:10)
Th . .
ry at the neighbor-
18
. e book of Obadiah claims not only that Yahweh an.~1 eceive their just
ing country of Edom, but also that soon all nations wt r
deserts:

For the day of the LORD is near against all the nations.
As You have done, it shall be done to you;
Your deeds shall retum on your own head. (15)
. st the conunu-
lbe p h words again dfor Judah
llity • .rophetic Books launch equally hars ainst Israel an
, •ns1sting that the Warrior soon will march ag
 . Prophetic Metaphor
106 Challengmg
.e example of this usage of the Warrior against Is .
themselves. The e ass1 1 . raeI is
. Amos 5·18-20.
foun d m ·
ho desire the day of the LORD!
Alas for you w f h LoRD?
Why do you want the day o t e .
lt is darkness, not light; .
as if someone fled from a hon,
and was met by a bear; .
· to the house and rested a hand aga1nst the wall,
orwent m •
and was bitten by a snake.
Is not the day of the LORD darkness, not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?

Sometimes these texts spell out the injustices the offending party has com-
mitted. ln Obadiah, Edom is to be punished for its treatment of Judah; in Amos
and Micah, Israel will be conquered because of its mistreatme nt of the poor;
in Hosea, Israel will fall because of its failure to worship. Yahweh alone.
Sometimes, however, the injustices that spark Yahweh's anger are only
implied via the use of generic language such as "sin," "transgress ion," or "sin-
ners" (as in Isa. 13:4-13, quoted above).
ln her study of the language used in the Hebrew Bible to describe emotions,
Ellen van Wolde explains that both people and Yahweh become angry when
someone thwarts their intentions: "the emotion of anger must always have an
2
object; an individual cannot be angry without being angry at something." ln
the Prophets, the object of Yahweh's anger is injustice.

Step 2: Injustice Provokes Anger

Throughout the Prophetic Books, Yahweh reacts to injustice with anger. Voc~b-
ul~ related to anger abounds in this material, as seen in the frequency witb
w~ch tbe words "anger," "angry," "fury," and "wrath" appear in English trans-
~ations_. ln th_e Hebrew of the texts, even more anger-relat ed vocabulary sur-
aces, mcludmg language referring to "heat" and "the nose" (which in Hebrew
seems to be the part f the body most related to anger). ln the book Of Isaiah
1 °
:i~tenes, tthheASVdtranslation (a somewhat literal translation of the Hebrew), as~o-
. th oe1ty
~ · . s "ang
e wor
all i er," " angry," "wrath," and ".1nd.1gnau·on" .w1th, . e
1orty-mne times,
This . n the context of Yahweh's response to nations sins.
connection can b .
e seen m Isa. 5:24-25:
... they have reject d h .
and have despise~ t~ e lilS truction of the LORD of hosts,
Therefore the ange Of ~worct of the Holy One of Israel.
and he stretchedro t ~e LORD was kindled against his people,
. u 8 hand against them and struck thern;
 Godas (Angry) nr .
vvarnor 107
th mountains quaked,
eheir corpses were like refuse in the stre t
and t . h e s.
for a11this h1s anger as not tumed away ,
and bis hand is stretched out still.

. ·iar example is found in Isa. 42:24-25· b .

A511111 • • • ecause the p
. t yahweh, would not walk 1n h1s ways and wo ld eop1e sinned
agains . ' u not obey his laws,
... he poured upon h1m the heat of his anger
and the fury of war;
it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand·
it burned him, but he did not take it to heart. '

Not only in Isaiah b~t throughout the Prophetic Books, Yahweh's passion for
justice is expressed m terms of the Deity's fury.

Step 3: Anger Leads To Vengeance

Yahweh's anger is not simply a felt emotion; it almost inevitably propels the
Deity to take vengeance on wrongdoers. This feature of the Divine Warrior
texts can be seen in the example of Isaiah 5 given above: when Yahweh is
angry, he stretches out his hand against his enemies.
Sometimes Yahweh's retribution takes place on a cosmic levei, as in the
theophanies discussed earlier-those accounts of Yahweh's anger shattering
trees and mountains, shaking the very foundations of the earth. But, mostly
retribution is a very this-worldly matter. Divine retribution comes in the form
of military defeat and destruction, as Yahweh guides international affairs in
?rder to punish wrongdoers. According to Isaiah, Yahweh will use the Assyr-
ians to punish unjust Judah:
Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger-
the club in their hands is my fury !
(10:5)
Aceord· dah · Yahweh's doing:
ing to Jeremiah, the Babylonian destruction of Ju 18
It is I WhO have made the earth,
With th by my great power and my outstretched arm . it to whomever
I pl e people and animals that are on the earth, ao<l I hgived of King Neb-
.
ease · No w I ·have g1ven
Uchact . an
all these 1ands 1·nto the h'm even the w1'ld
nezzar of Babylon my servant and I have g1ven 1
anl.Illals 0f ' '
the field to serve him. (27:5-6) f r
l arn . the LORD, even o
~;~g
l<ing to send for all the tribes of the north, s~In bring them again_st
this la d Uchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I tions around; I will
n ªnd its inhabitants, and against all these na
108 Challenging Prophetic Metaphor
d make them an object of horror and of hissing
utterly destroy ~em, an . , and
an everlasting d1sgrace. (25.9)
. d ncy to trace Yahweh's hand in the successes and d ~
The prophet1c ten e . d' i:& b e1eats
. . ften seen as the pnmary 1uerence etween the Proph .
of human anmes is o A d' etic
.
t1 c sections of the canon. ccor 1ng to such an argum
Books and apoc al YP . d . d ent,
. b ks like Daniel Revelat1on, an 1so1ate passages Iater add d
apoc alypuc oo ' h Y::... i. h . e
ophetic Books (such as Isa. 63) s ow <111We working outside of
to the Pr story disrupting intemat1onal · ffº h h h
a airs rat er t an ore estrating the·
human hi ' d' 'd' 1· b ir
outcomes. While it is difficult to draw a clear 1v1 . 1ng 1ne etween "prophetic"
and "apocalyptic," the Prophetic Book~ do cons1_stently make the bold claim,
problematic for many, that God determines the w1nners and the losers of wars.
Van Wolde argues that, unlike the Japanese language in which anger is
understood as a powerful emotion that must be controlled, biblical Hebrew
envisions anger as uncontrollable. She notes that in the Hebrew Bible even
Yahweh is not in control of bis anger: "Heis more than five hundred times
represented as subjected to the explosive force of fury and aggression leading
to violence." 3 This aspect of the Divine Warrior is evident in the Prophetic
Books, even when they discuss divine mercy. The famous credo of the Old
Testament, repeated in Joel 2: 14, that Yahweh is "gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing,"
stresses the fact that Yahweh does not get angry easily. Yet once bis anger is
activated, it usually does not abate until punishment is meted out:

The anger of the LORD will not tum back

unti! he has executed and accomplished
the mtents of his mind.
(Jer. 23:20)

1:he hope of repentant people is not that an angry God will decide not t~
purush
. but. rather thªt G0 d wi·11 cease being angry, since anger "automattc· ally
entails drre consequences:

"Who knows? God l . his

fierce may re ent and change h1s mind · he may turn froIIl
anger, so that we do not perish." (Jonah 3:9) '
Who is a God like .
and . you, pardonmg iniquity
passmg over the transgression
f h
o t e remnant of
He does t . 1our possession?
no retam his anger forever
because he delights in sho . '
wmg clemency.
(Mie. 7: 18)
 Go das (An gry ) Warrior 109

's sak e J def. er Imy ang.er,. ~

narne 1t 1or you,
for rt1 Y sak e of my pra1se res tra m
the
for I ,nay not cut you off.
so that (Isa. 48: 9)

r cha pte rs, the im age ofY ah-

sba nd and fat her exp lor ed in ear lie the
ho s of Go d. ln thi s cas e, however,
Lik: t:~ or com mu nic ate s the pat d,
er. Be cau se Go d car es, Go d is enrage
weh th f yah we h is exp res sed as ang
of the world.
path05 .º mo ti vat es Go d to rig ht the wr on gs
which in turn

Th e Wa rri or and Wo me n

ve, ho we ver , the re is ano the r fea tur e of the pro phe tic Div ine -
ested abo . . bl e ste p 1n . h pro ces s of the Wa rrio r's
As sugg texts, one mo re ne arIy 1ne v1t a . t e
warrior r. ln the
e to inj ust ice , a ste p tha t com pb cat es the ses tex ts eve n furthe .
ons · . on th at th e ,u: .
resp tic Books, the phy s1c . al ret a1iat1 n am or exa cts 1s usu ally
Prophe ·
se per son ifie d as wo me n.
depicted as taken ou t on wo me n or tho
to the wa y in wh ich the Wa rrio r's
Feminists hav e giv en mo st att ent ion
on wo me n or com mu nit ies per son ifie d as wo me n is des cri bed as
vengeance i-
ual ize d nat ure of the pun ish me nt env
sexual violation. Ex am ple s of the sex arl y
thr eat to "lif t up yo ur ski rts " is cle
sioned by the pro phe ts abo un d. Th e t
to cou ntr ies im agi ned as wo me n: in Na h. 3:5 the thr eat is ma de aga ins
applied
h, and in Jer . 13 :26 -27 it is Iod ged aga ins t Jud ah, wh o is als o
woman Nineve
e a ma re.
accused of "w hor ing " and nei gh ing Iik ns
lenc e aga ins t a wo ma n's gen ita ls is als o thr eat ene d. En gli sh translatio
Vio ued
bu t Ra che l Ma gd ale ne has we ll arg
often obscure this asp ect of the tex ts, rd-
tra nsl ate d "ga te" in the NRSV is a wo
tbatin texts such as Isa . 3:26 the wo rd
the wo rd for "op eni ng " or "va gin a": 4 "A nd her gat es sha ll lam ent and
play on y
gro un d " ln fac t, thi s wo rd is clo sel
mourn; 1ravaged, she sha ll sit up on the ·
re1 ~t0th Isa . 3: 17 as "se cre t par ts" :
e wo rd tra nsl ate d in the NR SV of

Th~ Loc<l will afflict wit h sca bs

t e heads of the dau ght ers of Zio n
th ret par ts.
anct e LORD wil l Iay bar e the ir se~
1'heJan ·leing m · pro phet ic
gua ge of se al · t wo me n is so stn
te that
Xts fe . . xu 1ze d vio len ce aga ins l
nun i st sch ola rs suc h as Dr ora h Se tel At hal ya Bre nne r, and Ch ery · t
Bxurn hav ' ·
w0tnen is e comPar ed the m to po mo gra ph y· in bo th cas es, v1olence aga ms5
.
to. titi lla te ma le vie we rs/r ead erses-
. Wbiie o~xu~I in nat ure and is. int en de d • 'thi dom
bc e0ntext (aen.In the Prop het s v1o len ce aga ins t wo me n 1s set WI n ª
8
In Ez ek. 16 and 23 an d Ho s. 2,
dis cus sed pre vio usl y in cha pte r
4 ) ' of pa rti cu lar in ter es t he re is th e co nn ec tio n be tw
activities of th e Di vi ne W ar no . Th o· . W . ee n se xu al
r. e 1v1ne- am or tex ts of assau1t
are Go d's ve ng ea nc e to th at of th e p and th
Ptex a so ld ier as sa ul tin g civ ili an wo ro~hets colll~
t of war. On e ex ~p le is · ~ d · J 13 ·2 5
in military ac tio n ag ain st fe ma
io un in er. . . -2 7, as Ya hw ehme joinnsn thecon~
1
le Ju da h, an d hi m se lf ex ac ts
he r . Babylon
This is yo ur lot, PU IU shrnent:
the po rti on I ha ve me as ur ed ou
t to yo u, sa ys th e LORD,
because yo u ha ve fo rg ott en m e
and trusted in lies.
I myself wi ll lif t up yo ur sk irt s ov
er yo ur fa ce ,
and yo ur sh am e wi ll be seen.
I ha ve se en yo ur ab om ina tio ns
,
yo ur adulteries an d ne ig hi ng s,
yo ur sh am ele ss prostitutions
on the hills of th e co un try sid e.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
Ho w lo ng wi ll it be
before yo u are ma de cle an ?
Th us , to th e pr og re ss io n of an ge
r th at va n W ol de de sc rib es , th e
ad d an additional step: in ju sti ce Prophetic Books
lea ds to an ge r, an ge r lea ds to
vengeance is tak en ou t on ac tu vengeance, and
al or pe rso ni fie d wo me n.

N ah um as a Ca se St ud y
To e bo ok of Na hu m pr ov id es
a go od ca se stu dy of Di vi ne-W
as we ll as of th e difficulty th arrior imag~ry,
at Ch ris tia n in ter pr ete rs ha ve
to bib lic al vi ol en ce . Th is sh in respondmg
or t bo ok de vo tes sin gl e- mi nd
announcing Ya hw eh 's pu ni sh me ed attention to
. n Emp · · h nt ag ain st Ni ne ve h, th e capital of the ~s~yr-
1a rre 1n t e 8t h ce nt ur y BC E. ln · g, 1t
· all ow
. ...o h n· . W so do1n s us greater .ms1ght
in\ .
ow a 1v1ne- am or tex t wo rk
s an d als o ho w 1t . ev ok 1
responses. es very d1fferen

Na hu m as a Di vi ne -W ar rio r Te
Na h xt
um exh.b . A
1 1ts all th e fe atu re s of pr op he tic Di s 2..-"
· t xts Step ,t,
as described above, ar e es pe cia vi ne -W ar no r e · God s
lly ev id en t. Th is pr op he t anno
anger and readiness to ma rc h in unces
ve ng ea nc e:
A jealous and avenging Go d is the
the LO RD is LO RD
avenging and wrathful; '
 1
God as (Angry) Warrior 11
s
takes ve
D ng ea nc e on .hi s adversarie
theLO R . h. s.
d rages ag am st 1s enem1e (Nah . 1:2)
an
.
fo llo w de sc rib e th e W at rio r's m ar ch in co smo1og1ca1 terms:
that
fhe verses
sto rm. ,
. ay is in wh irl wi nd an d
H1s w
d the clouds ar e tb e du st
of bi s feet.
es it dry,
H a;:bukes the se a an d m ak
ers;
:n d he dries up all tb e riv
,
Bashan and Ca rm el wither
fades.
and the bloom of Le ba no n
e bi m ,
The mountains qu ak e be for
and the hills melt;
the earth heaves be fo re bi
m,
in it.
the world an d all w bo liv e
(1 :3 b- 5)

r re tu m s:
Attention to Y ah w eh 's an ge
di gn at io n?
Who can sta nd be fo re bi s in
bi s an ge r?
Who can en du re th e he at of
e fire,
His wrath is po ur ed ou t lik
ok en in pieces.
and by hi m tb e ro ck s ar e br (1:6)

s of th e W ar rio r in ch ap te r 1 gi ve way in chap-

on
The cosmological di m en si en ga ge d in wa rfa re on th e streets
of
io ns of Y ah w eh
te~s 2 and 3 to th e de pi ct e: he is a sh at te re r (a "s ca tte re r" in
is un st op pa bl
Nmeveh. Yahweh's po w er ns of 2: 1)6 w ho se an ny overwhelm
s
En gl is h tra ns la tio
tbe Hebrew be hi nd th e eh . Th e ci ty falls, am id cries of woe
de fe nd N in ev
~~se who at te m pt in va in to co ns eq ue n~ es of Y ah w eh 's ra
ge:
s th e de va st at in g
.IO). Chapter 3 re ve al
Horse~en charging,
in g sp ea r,
. flashmg sw or d an d gl itt er
PI1es of dead
heaps of c~rpses
dead bOct· '
th ies wi th ou t en d -
!
ey stumbie ov er th e bo di es
(3 :3 ) .
I th Of x -
m es at se
n typical f. , th e im ag e of N in ev eh 's hu m ili at io n be co
llaJ assau1t . ashion sc rib ed w ith a fo nn of ~he H e~ re
;
ev eh is de
<11h (in NR~n Nah. 3:4-11. N in nt~e;
rn e te rm us ed in H os ea to de se nh e tbe
deJities of GV, ª ''p ro st itu te ," th e sa 0
ca n ga ze
er ). Y ah w eh 's lif tin g he r sk irt s so th at ot he rs
om
 hetic Metaphor
112 Challenging Prop
le The language of sexual assault rn ay e
•1 t a spec tac ·
sharne
makes her n °
. 3 where
0
"gates" may refer both to the city and , as argu n-
. · to verse 3· 1 ' ed
unue tn & ale genitais:
above, to iem
ps·
Look at your tro~n i~ your midst.
they are wom
The gates of your Iand .
wide open to your foes,
arfie has devoured the bars of your gates.
re (3: 13)

cognition of injustice, is not explicit in the book of Nahum.

Step 1, the re . h' . H
To b k does not state clearly what N1neve s comes are. owever, several
clu:s ~:the book may suggest that justice is its underlying th_em~. The book's
opening superscription, depicting what foI_Iows as an ~racle ag~nst Nineveh,
signals to readers that the foe in the book_1s the Assynan Emprre, nota petty
state but the dominant empire of the e1ghth century BCE. The Assyrian
Empire (more properly called the Neo-Assyrian) is best known to Bible read-
ers as the nation that destroyed the northem kingdom Israel in 721 BCE, but
it was notorious throughout the ancient Near East for its prowess and brutal-
ity in battle as well as its hunger for territory and the resources that carne with
it. Over time, Nineveh and Assyria became symbols for evil, such as in the
books of Jonah and Judith (found in the Apocrypha for Protestants), two
pieces likely written long after the eighth century. .
Other clues within the book suggest that its vision of the defeat of Nineveh
was understood as the exacting of justice. Nineveh is called "the wicked"
(l:lS) and "a city of bloodshed, utterly deceitful" (3: 1). The closing taunt of
tbe book rhetorically asks of Nineveh "Who has ever escaped your endless
' .
. · ' ª Nmeveh ,s defeat 1s seen as good news for those who
cruelty?" (3 •I 9) nd •
trust m Yahweh:

Toe LoRD is good,

h a stronghold in a day of trouble·
e Protects tho h '
even in a rut:i: ~ take refuge in him,
He Will make a fulr ood. .
and will pursue h~nd of ~1s ~dversaries
is enem1es mto darkness.
ln Nah . (Nah. 1:7-8)
um, Nmev h' 1 ds yah·
Weh to tale e s cruelty p . is
d . e vengeanc rovokes Yahweh's anger that anger eaerrues
escnbed e on enemi . ,
as the sexual a es, and the destruction of those en
ssault of a woman.
 3
G od as (Angry) Warrior 11

Re sp on se s to N ah um
h
ha ve re ac te d in ve ry di ffe re nt wa ys to the book ofN a um
ws • h tw~
. s and le, os ea 's m ar na ge m et ap or, re sp on se s have fallen on
Cb!Ístl~ case of H en ~e wer ha ve succeeded, in find-
at t~ m pt e~ , an ~ ev
;.s ill _tb oles. Fe w ha ve ta ki ng Id eo lo gi ca l criti• que of the book se n
._
um w hi le
oPPºs1tevPal ue 1-0 N.ah . ,, d. l .e sea
Y it or ba te It I em m a ia ce d by Interpreters of Ho
jng aJ1 The "Iove
ous1Y• readers of N ah um
as we ll.
onts
confr
. .
gate /t .
ba st ed fo r Its VI ol en ce . Fo r example, professional
ahunl most often IS la m d in 19 52 to call Na hu m a prophet
as e re fu se
N tator Mary El le n Ch . .
conunen bis violent, th ou gh be au tif ul , rh et on c:
of
t,ecause
as a po et an d no t as a pr op het. : .. A complete and
[Nahum deserves praise] oo dy cit y of Ni neveh.. .. It is a poem
te d th e bl
confirmed nationalist, he ha nc e an d de str uc tio n, with Iittle to relieve
ve ng ea
of bloodshed and horror, of t be ad m ire d fo r the sheer power and
bu t it m us
its savagery and violence; fu l, bu t br ill ian t imagery. 7
fo r its aw
force of its expression an d
to di sli ke N ah um . W he n in th e cl as sr oo m and in
Lay interpreters also te nd r th e fir st tim e, they ra re ly see the
N ah um fo
churches I have pe op le re ad ys th ey re ac t ne ga tiv el y to its
vio-
; in ste ad , al m os t al wa
beauty of the book ge t pa st th e description of God as
er s str ug gl e to
lence. In fact, m os t re ad
vengeful in 1:2 and an gr y in
1:6. y that
fe m in ist co m m en ta to rs ha ve pr ot es te d th e wa
Not surprisingly, as th ou gh th e city we re a woman.
sa ul tin g N in ev eh
Nahum depicts Yahweh as th Sa nd er so n ca lls readers to see the
en ta ry , Ju di
ln tbe Women 's Bible Co m m ua ge fo r Ni ne ve h an d claims th
at it
e of fe m in in e Ia ng
danger of Nahum's us
hasno
posit
· value fo r th e pr es en t:
· tve
hu m an ki nd can be repr esented in
la tio ns hi p wi th f
~ho aspect of Go d's
ld
re
at de pe nd s on a de struc t1ve v1· ew 0
·
e modern wor by an im ag e th .
ip a God who
Women's b d'
ha t wo ul d it m ea n to wo rsh
O
ted selves. . . . W d in an
is Port w he n an gr y? . . . To involve· Go
itna rayed as ra·pi ng wo m en
to JU Stl·tY 1·t and
ge of sexu I a pr of ou nd wa y so m eh ow
thereb s ª · Vtolence is ' in ' r any reason angry wt'th ª
fo
Y to m al es wh o ar e
Woman. s anction it for hu m an
. .
Sanders on ac kn ut al ity ga ve ns e to th e In tense an~er
at A ss yr ia n br t resIS t
e.xpressect in ow le dg es th th at m od em re ad er s mu S
the book of N ah um bu t m ai nt ai ns · co uche d ·
· IS
lhe contin · ho r in wh · h It
ic
h
Ued Use of t e fil lso gy ni sti c m et ap
 . Prophetic Metaphor
t l 4 Challenglilg
dy of Nahum argues that gender is sues are e
s 9 Thven lllore l'lt
My ownbstuk than Sanderson's commentary indicate · e pu · t' ev
· the oo nient a,
lent 10 . t the only aspect of the book hthat hrefl. ects ge qderllJ.sh
Nineveh is nothe feminin . vu1nerabl e.. J ud a , w o 1s also Port ideologi of
. 1s
e
Toroug h t ~
ou ' dueto the Hebrew 1orm f he word " you," is dep rayed asfer-nes.
. . . 1..15 o t endent ,,1,
imne lil 1· . . d fi as pow er and on \'.!11.
er And true mascu 1n1t y 1s e ned . cont ra
weh to save h ·. taunted 1n . . . . 1. 'l
•111-
ne
1.14, 2.13, and 3.18-19 as imp ot
. f A yria 15 ent to det
king o ss end
bis people:
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.
(Nah 3:18)

is described as a lack of
Similarly, the ineffectiveness of Assyrian warriors
manliness:
Look at your troops:
they are women in your midst.
Toe gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured the bars of your gates.
(3: 13)

ln contrast, Yahweh is a powerful, fierce, and vict

orious warrior who defends
Yahweh as masculine
(feminine) Judah against the foe. Even his anger defines
in the thought world of the Hebrew Bible. As van
Wolde points out, nota sin-
vocabulary for anger.
gle woman in the Hebrew Bible is described with the 10 th0
sorrow in the Bible, but not ange r. The r·
Women express grief, fear, and
and, for those_who care
oughgoing gender ideology of Nahum is hard to ignore
hard to forgive.
about challenging such stereotypes of men and women,

Love It
· · value of lhe
On the other extreme, some interpreters argue for the positive . . ts that
book of Nahum p eter Cra1.g1e . . .
inte rpre ta0·00 .10s1s
h co!ll·
· 1s one examp le. His
. wb1c h e
readers take seriou 81~ the brutal nature of the Assyrian Empire , ds those wh0
pares to the N .
. He scol knºirledge
conside th az1 regime of the early twentieth century
failing to ac
the evilrth emN~elves ethically superior to Nahum for
at ineveh represents. f thÍ5
.
If' from the comfo tirnents o e
st com plain that the sen ives that w
book are neith rt of udy or pew, we
ourse
have not suffe erdnoble nor uplifting, we need to remind
re at Assyrian hands.11
 Goct as (A.ngry) W .
one who appr . arr1or 11s
An other example of eciates Nah
African , Wessels has suggested th at Nah um is W'Ih 1 elrn Wi
sou th . .
Iiterature, much hke the kind pr d um is best unct essels. A
ranCe . o uced · erstooct .
eid years. 1t IS poetry meant to 1.b in South A.fri ~s res1s-
aparth 1 h
e t e con
fi
dence
1 erate th unagina
that J·ust·ice Wdl . e
. ca dunng the
t·10n, to .
ssed peop
opPre _o_ne day carne. N h g1ve
,,f'(Jues, "is not so much a call to violence or a 1eg1tim ti' a urn he
(11.t, • • • f ª on of violen b'
the Imagma t10n o the people to PI. t ce, ut a
eali 00 . e ure the d D
the hands of a sovereign power." 12 Nahum all owed anc1ent e. eat of their enern
. th th y at
ence something at ey could not witness in the fl . readers to experi-
th
tively witness the spectacle of Assyria's defeat whi :s?· ey could irnagina-
for the future. ' e m tum gave them hope
Wbile the prophets' insistence on the anger of G0 d .
1 seen as their
asa1ackof failing, some interpreters have argued to the contrary th atisd?f~en
1vme angeris good
· .
news. A generatlon ago, the Jewish theologian Abraham H h 1. .
· · · • . esc e ms1sted that
God's anger agamst mJustic e Is a sign of God's goodnes s , th at a God who
.
cares about humamty must be angered at its suffering. According to Hesche1,
. d G d'
the prophets perceIve o s wrath notas a fundamental characteristic of God
but as a temporary respon se to human sin:

Toe ultimate meaning of history lies in the continuity of God's concem. His
wrath is not regarded as an emotional outburst, as an irrational fit, but rather
as a part of His continuai care. Because the prophets could not remain calm
· who defendi in the face of crimes committed by men and disaster falling upon men, they 13
had to remember and to remind others: God's heart is not made of stone.
1 as rnascu]iil

out, notasin- For interpreters such as Heschel, the book of Nahum reve_al~ God's care f~r
ary for anget humanity. For Nah. 1:7 to claim that God is good after clannmg that_God is
er. 10 'fhe th(l'· · ·1 1 according to Ehzabeth
worki ng vengeance is not an oxymoron. SIffilt arhY,man violence but rather
. God 's vengea nce does not promo e u .
hose wbOcare Aehteme1er,
forgive, suhstitutes for it:
b . s however, not about
Nahum is not primarily a book about human emgb, t book about God.
.
human vengeance and hatred and m1·1·1tary conquest ' bu at God that has d1s-
And It• has been our failure to let Nah um be a14book a ou
torted the value of this prophecy in our eyes.
Aoct, likewise, Duane Christensen maintains, bout human
N d' justice, not ª
ahum is primarily a book about Go1s s
ven t f NahUJ.11 is to den-
geance, hatred, and military conques ·
A.cc d' d . rate the book o
· or Ing to these commentators, to emg
igrate th
e cause of justice.
 . hetic Metaphor
116 Challengmg Prop

f
. on the Responses jCi
Reftectmg . discussion of other images of God in the Pro h oí
~
re::~::m
As was the case in our to the Divine Warrior in Nahum take two opp e~s,
interpreters'_ is a bad book-violent and misogynistic-o,~~~:te
extremes. Eitb th hampions justice for the oppressed. ª 1
0
d book one at e " 1 .
goo ' t of the discussion so f ar ouer exp anations for why th 0
Several elemen s d b e
m differ so greatly. (1) As suggeste a ove, the two cam ~
responses to Nahu f y ah h' Ch ps
focus on different steps in the process o . weh ~ anger. . ase, Sanderson,
and those who generally dislike the book drrect t err atten~1on to the final out-
Yahweh's anger, while Craigie, Wessels, Achteme1er, and Christensen
comeof · · · (2)
stress the O riginating cause ofYahweh's concem:
. .. 1nJust1ce. , ln the. previous
chapters, I argued that some responses pnontize a metaphor s vehicle while
other interpretations focus on its tenor. ln the case of N ahum, Sanderson' s cri-
tique obviously focuses on the metaphor's vehicle, the all-too-familiar depic-
tion of women's bodies as the battlefields for men's wars, so well outlined by
Susan Brownmiller in Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. 16 On the con-
trary, Wessels, Achtemeier, and Christensen focus on Nahum's tenor, its con-
cem with justice; they ignore the frame invoked by gendered language. While
in our study of other metaphors we saw some commentators attempt both
appreciation and critique, I have not found commentators on Nahum who
acknowledge that it is both concemed with justice and also violent and sexist.
Apparently, there is no middle ground to hating or loving Nahum.
But, as in the case of other metaphors for God in the Prophets, neither of
these polarized positions helps readers decide "what to do" with Divine-
Warrior texts like Nahum. Focusing on how evil the Assyrians were may
a . 1
ppropnate Y challenge modem readers who think of themselves as superior
to_Nahum, but any interpretation that fails to take seriously the violence and
rrulsogyny of Nahum clearly fails to consider the whole of the book or the prob-
ems that most read h · · t
ing Nah ers ave in appreciating it. At the sarne time, simply reJec ·
readers ~m as a bad book, offensive to modem sensibilities, provides little for
o engage The "hat .t" d e that
the problems the · find . e 1 strategy gives readers a f alse confi enc be
solved by a simpi f with Nahum remain in the world of the text and can d
ers who find wa~~ u:al to read, or at_least to approve of, the book. For r~s~
leaves unresolved f; ~ay from a b1blical text difficult, this strategY e
allowed either to ap e ~1lemma that gives rise to my project: readerths ar
Perhaps even w prec1ate or to critique biblical texts but not to do bo . b
th orse whe th ' . t eac
º. er as mutually excl~si n . ese two approaches are pitted agains res·
s1on matters most w·u :e options, readers are left to decide whose opP bO
1
· t ey read, like Wessels, for the sake of those w
 God as (Angry) W .
arnor 117
der the weight of empire? Or will they r d~
roanu n . 11 . ea iorwo
g nd metaphonca y raped 1n war? Having t . men who are phys
icallY a ses a moral problem for readers. it also k o p1ck the greater victim no;
nlY po . . b . , eeps them fr
o rtiplex relat1onsh1p etween vanous forms of . om recognizing
the co1u . h . . oppress1on
ee that tendency 1n t e way 1n wh1ch "liberation" d' · ·
1 1
ft s exclude women from such liberation. For examp:e~ ~~s of t?e Prophets
o en ation of the "daughters of Zion" in Isa. 3: 16-24
dernn d h . .
i,
NID p1scussmg the con-
, · • remnath ex 1 ·
t wealthy women eserve t e1r pun1shment because th P ams
tha ey oppress the poor:
WhY should Isaiah go to such lengths to condemn the wom f h .
f h · en o t e ehte
group? One can see ~om t e hst of !he personal items that only the rich
could afford_ the_se. Th1s rel~tes to their_penchant for Iuxury items .. . . It is
this lack of Justice and den1al of a bas1c decent living to the peasants that
led the prophets to speak out against the situation and those who were
responsible for it. 17

Wbat Premnath does not consider, however, is that women did not enjoy inde-
pendent wealth in ancient Israel; the seizure of land that would have made
ancient Israelite elites rich remained the prerogative of men.
Forthese reasons anda host of others, neither of these responses to Nahum
or to the metaphor of the Divine Warrior rises to the challenges posed by this
text and its critique. As in the case of other chapters, I suggest a different
approach to reading N ahum.

Another Way of Engaging Nahum

Rather than asking whether we like N ahum or whether we are wil~ing to live
tbe way it prescribes, what happens when we consider what pressmg human
quesf10 • . . ·d ? What good can come
ns this book and its critique 1nv1te us to consi er · . • ai
from • & pie does 1deolog1c
. readmg Nahum problems and ali? How, .10r exam ' d · ti e?
cntiq 1-11 ' d' of anger an JUS c ·
ue umine ancient and modem understan ings • ai critique
And wh · d its ideolog1c
at do the metaphor of the Divine Warnor an ·
st
sugge for Christian theological formulations?
Ancient d
N an Modern Understandings ofAnger . . that Yah-
w!~m's 6 1
claim that Yahweh is angry (1 :2) and good (l : ), :~t ~:~hat they,
as . 1~ good because he is angry encourages readers to re ger As explained
1nd1vid 1 ' · b 1· eve aboutB'ble
an · der
ab ua sandas members of a society, e 1 anger is un -
ove, Van Wi 1 , . th Hebrew 1 d What
st00d t o de s study suggests that 1n e ble once enflame ·
0 11
do lll be motivated by an offense and uncontro ª . n?
Odern People believe about anger and its expressio ·
 . g Prophetic Metaphor
118 Challengin
. .n about anger can be seen in the semantic range of th
current th1nkil.gh Our vocabulary for anger compares it to tire· e \Vord
. Eng 1s . • ange •
in A~en_c ~ ums; it is a flame; people see red when angry. Similar! ris a
11
tire w1thi~, ~d to combustible fuel: anger fuels aggression and i;'hiilllger
is o~en liken r also is compared to hot water: anger boils; it builds in gh}y
volatile. Ange t d when people blow off steam. Pres.
e· it can be ven e h . .
sur , ,, buman response to anger, owever, 1s vanously described·
"Proper anageable: A quick, unscientific Internet search suggest'
1 Anger as m . . sthat
· . t perspective on anger 1n our culture v1ews anger as dang
~~w~ . ~
but also un avol .dable , so that the appropnate response to one's own ang er 1s.
to dissipate its energy. Although we can b~ provoked to anger, our anger can
be controlled, handled, dealt with, coped w1th, resolved, channeled, and, most
of all, managed. Toe commercial success of books, seminars, and miscella-
neous programs for "anger management" demonstrate that we differ from the
Old Testament in believing that anger does not necessarily lead to acts of vio-
lence. Acting out on anger is unacceptable, but so is keeping it bottled up
inside; we thus learn techniques to "take out our anger" by punching a pillow,
going for a walk, or engaging in talk or scream therapy rather than by physi-
cally harming others.
2. Anger as loss of control: A competing view of anger, however, runs deep
in some communities, families, and churches. This view considers anger a
moral failing, a sin, or at the very least a sign of a person' s inability to remain
in control. Because anger is an irrational impulse, humans should train them-
selves to quit getting angry and instead respond to the world with love and
~nderstand~g. This actually was what I was taught growing up in the C~s-
t~an c~urch m the American South: good Christians (or at least good Chris-
tlllll grrls) do not get angry. It just is not nice. Rather than feeling anger at tbose
wbho w~onged me, I was to follow Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount
· and bY not even allowing myself to desp1se · sorneone
· Ylovmg my enemies
m my heart.
This perspective b A F fbur-
man describ . runs eyond my own upbringing. As Robert · · . of
es m Anger- Th S d . ant stratn
Eastem thought · e even Deadly Sins, both a 0J.111n that to
be truly whole has well as of ancient Greco-Roman Stoicism teaches sion
0f the Medea ' umans h . must eract·1cate their anger. 18 As 1n · seneca's ver an·
myt d1scu d 1. anger e
not be managed O ' sse n chapter 3, Stoics maintained that theY do
not intend· "bl' dr controlled but instead drives people to act in ways ,, The OIJJ
-1y
' in rage" 1 d
solution for a v· l ea s them to commit "crimes of passion.
3 10 ent World 18. 0
b · Anger as a motiv t ! r people to eradicate their anger. t it cafl
e a positive force wha o_r for Justice: Another view of anger hold~ tha rspec·
en it energizes people to address wrongs. ThlS pe
 God as (An gry) Warrior 119

t "J·ust ang er," or "rig hteo us ang ert or eve n mor e often "ri ght-
1 . h "
aJks aboU
cive t . . nation.'' For exa mp e, in er poe
m A Just Ang er" Mar ge Piercy
s 1nd1g
eoU
c1aiIJ1S that
d anger acte d upo n
Agoo . .
Is beautiful _as hgh tmn g
and swift w1th power.
A good anger swallowed,
od anger swa llow ed
a gO • 19
clots the bloo d to shm e.

er invests ene rgy in cau ses that mat.ter. A 1t mot ivat es and imp els action, a
Ang . . dd r ' s ""1orce can fuel indi vidu al
unterbalance to pass1v1ty an epress1on. nge
take it any mor e." It can also
:~tion: "I'm mad as hell , and I'm not goi ng to
energize social pro test aga inst inju stic e .
y peo ple con side r ang er a
. 4. Anger as diagnostic of values: Alt hou gh man
c, num erou s thin kers with in
fickle emotion, one that ove rrid es reas on and logi
hav e argu ed that ang er is
philosophy, psy cho logy , and pas tora l cou nse ling
instead a form of inte llec tual resp ons e. ln Lov
e 's Knowledge, phil oso phe r
whe n that whi ch we mos t fun -
Martha Nussbaum insi sts that ang er onl y aris es
damentally believe is thre aten ed. º For exa mpl e,
2 I mig ht hav e a phy sica l, vis-
r-ol d in a red spo rts car cuts in
ceral response of ang er whe n a twe nty- five -yea
he has cha nge d lane s quic kly
front of me. But if I get new info rma tion -tha t
et-m y ang er will eva por ate,
to avoid hitting a chil d who has run into the stre
is stro nge r than my beli ef in
because my beli ef in the valu e of a hum an life
0rder~i~ess. Nus sba um sug ges ts tha t rath er than den yin g anger, we liste n for
may diff er from our idea lize d
what It 18 telling us abo ut our true min d ' whi ch
V •
ers1ons of ours elve s.
ter talces Nus sba um' s
casln The Angry Christian, pas tora l cou nse lor And rew Les b .
east ep furth H e agre es wit h Nus sba um that "an ang er eve nt alway s eg1ns
With . er.
21 that pay ing attention to wha t
ang an Interpretation of a life situ atio n" and . . h
ers us might reve al wha t we real ly beli eve , eve n 1f that differs from w at we
Wou}ct 1.k . . .
I e to think ter how eve r exte nds bis disc uss1 on to 1nsi st
that Chri . we beli eve . Les ' ' •
. stian for wha t ang ers the ~. Wn t-
~ngfrornac ~ e~ and sho uld bea r resp ons ibil ity gro w-
tng into gett?11 stian per spe ctiv e he clai ms that true gro wth in faith enta tls . . .
be ing , es Chri sttaruty
ars som ang ry onl y at the righ t thin gs: one who pro fess
801lleone e culp abil ity if ove r tim e she con tinu es to get mor e ang
ry abo ut
scratchi ' ' the world.
A.n exp . ng her Lex us tha n she doe s abo ut pov erty in
°
~hofogy IJ,~11~en t rep orte d in a 2007 issu e in
Personality and Social Psy-
d · ·
"s sununan ~ etzn
ges ts tha t ang er eve n help s peo ple mak e bett er ecis ions .
sug
pro ved tbat
Zed on ww w.I ives cien ce.c om, the exp erim ent
 . h ti'c Metaphor
I 20 Challengmg Prop e
making a .
le focus 00 the cues that matter ·most to sion-mraakiti~nat
ang~~ helpsdp~op re cues that are irre levant to the task of deci ng
an ign o e anger is design • d to mot1v · peo ple to take acf .
dec1s10n ld b becaus e ate
. right action. 22 Ion_
Thls cou. et ally helps people to take the
and that 1t ac u
different, even com .
d·ng that contemporary readers hold ,
st why responses to the anger opfetGing
. Uo<lefr ange: offers one explanation for h oct
v1ews o anhets differ. If readers cannot agree on t fe value of human anger
. th p . . ?
1n act, I wou~d suggest tha~
m e rop ang er.
how will they agree on the value _of ~1v1ne
peo ple val ue div ine ang er 1s dir ect ly related to the way m which they
how
value anger in themselves and others.
human anger as a failing, both those
On the one hand, those who understand
sid er it to be "na tur al" and tho se wh o consider anger to be "treatable,,
who con
nce that Yahweh gets angry. They s~e
find little value in the prophetic insiste
tex ts as ref lec ting anc ien t, lim ited un derstandings of God, understand-
such
New Testament and continuing into
ings that evolved to higher planes in the
pect that ancient writers attempted to
the present. Toe skeptically minded sus
m afraid of God.
manipulate their readers by making the
d human anger as an appropriate
0n the other hand, those who understan
God's anger against mistreatment of
response to injustice in tum highly value
ak, as do tho se wh o und ers tan d hum an anger as diagnostic of deeply
the we
g example of the connection between
held values. Heschel provides a strikin
mitting oneself to causes of justice.
viewing divine anger positively and com
orte d tha t his stu dy of the Pro phe tic Books convinced him not only of
He rep
human injustice but also of his own
God's suffering and anger in the face of
d to tak e up the cau se of soc ial act ion. At the encouragement of Martin
nee
g Jr., He sch el bec am e act ive in the civil rights movement and was
Luther Kin
ders in a famous photo of the 1965
photographed with other civil rights lea
ma ma rch . He sch el als o enc our age d King to speak out against the Vietnam
Sel
sch ola r of the Pro phe ts hel ped fou nd the anti-Vietnam War orga-
~ar, ~nd this
about Vietnam. His daughter Prof.
ruzation, Clergy and Laity Concemed
a ~es ch~ l exp lain s tha t her fat her 's understanding of the prophets car·
~usann
ned over mto h1s own social action:
pro fou ndl y emotional and resonan t to
Thhe p~o phe ts pre sen ted Go d as · GOd 18 thr·
· cha
um aruty,
acteriz d b
wh eth er ·
m anger, love, or forgiveness;
prophe~s : ove all as compassionate.. . .
the prophe tic
Acting on bis conviction that I;
engaged i::m ~lodels fo~ ~ewish behavior today, Hesch
oc1a and pohtical issues. 23
el becarne deep

e wward
White I have likel n ad<lressed all perspectives that humans haV to we
anger the ones ct· Y ot ders' responses
' iscussed here help demonstrate that rea
 Godas (Angry) W: .
of God in the Prophets are not O 1 élrrior 121
ange;y related to their own understandi: y theologicaI; those
;t
c1oser Engaging these texts fully invites tof (and persona} ~~:P~nses are
~ge inforrn readers, responses to biblical t o explore how cultur~~es With)
uons h ~ exts, and it 11 assump-
e more accurate1y w at 1eatures of the Pr h a ows individ 1
naJll d h op ets lead th ua s to
what they fin t ere. . em to love or bate
For me an exploration of the different funcf
ctly what offends me about Nahum. ln re t~~s of anger led me to clarify
exalaized that my problem with Nahum is not theaf tntghHeschel and Wessels I
re . ac t at God t8 '
do believe that the emot1on of anger arises fro . ge angry, since
I m an att1tude of
than the lack of concem. Rather, my problem with Nah . th
weh is described as acting on his anger and the way
symbol of all that is evil.
t:~ care rather
is e way that Yah-
ª women become the
Ancient and Modem Understandings of Justice
Wben I first encountered the writing of Wessels, who compares Nahum to the
antiapartheid poetry of South Africa, I felt convicted: like other commenta-
tors, I had too easily read the book from a position of privilege, not paying
enough attention to the way that this book sets the anger of God in the con-
text of speaking against the Assyrian Empire. By focusing only on the vio-
lence against women in N ah. 3, I had ignored the significance of Assyrian
violence in the world of the writer.
My first reaction was to feel tom: Is Nahum the voice of the Judean
oppressed by Assyria or the voice of the male oppressor of women? How
could I insist on feminist critique of a book that offered liberation to others?
Toe more I reflected on this tension, however, the more I realized that r~ad-
1th
ing Nahum from different ideological perspectives had confront_ed me ~ ª
• rt through competmg clrums of
Very real, very contemporary 1ssue: how to so
juStice. Why did commentators only focus on oneaspect of Nahum? And wdh_Yd,
wh . Of ur els and Sanderson, 1
en confronted with competing perspectives ness
1 the need to choose between the two? thi bout me but I
feel
My initial impulse to choose sides may reveal som~ ng ~s one ca~se of
~us~ect it also reveals something about the way our cu ~~p; arn especially
JUSltce against another. Dozens of examples come to mm i~ply overlooked
~Ware of how women's issues so often take a backseat or ~te rys when the rigbts
inof the fight tor "bigger issues." Tbroughout American h1s o ' th oals
·a1 movements, o erg
Women were raised in the context of other soei ed their own cause
;e~e Understood to be more important: women who pre:e abolition of slav-
unng th fi & th United States, . . tices were
ery e ght for independence 1or e . til other 1nJUS
'Prohibition, and civil rights were told to watt un .
 . Prophetic Metaphor
122 Challenging
time the feminist movement has been rounctI
d At the same ' h YchaI
d · . the conc ems of some wom en at t e expe nse of h -
ad resse
lenged for ad<lr~ssihng feminist movements of the 1960 s and 1970s asot ers.
en 1ll t e · sumect
Wh1.te wom. . the right to work , the strug g1e agai
h
nst male pow er-
Were
h t their 1ssu es- . ave argu ed that their .
t ª f li men Afric an Ame ncan wom en con.
the issues o a ºth wo . . 1 d .h
all men but with wh1te. ma e power an not with the ng
cems are not .th w1 f 1 . the wor t at they have n t
k h
the abilit y to be treat ed air y 1n "..: . . ,, ever
to work but w1 . rust but "wom
. 'lege of not doing·' thetr concems are not 1emt. . -
had the pn v1
. ,, As1•an and Latina women have argu. ed, too,
. that their hves
. are notJ·ust
amst. ding race
determined by gender but also by other d1mens1ons of power, 1nclu
and class. al
On a global scale, many in the United States are quick to criticize politic
?" com-
struggles beyond our borders as stymied by the "wh o's the real victim
way. Yet
petition. Toe Palestinian-lsraeli conflict is often po~ra~e~ in this
s com~
these critics often fail to see how they do the sarne, as 1nd1v1duals anda
the class-
munities-arguing whether girls or boys are more disadvantaged in
African
room, whether the discrimination against same-sex couples or
are more
Americans is more egregious, whether conservatives or liberals
silenced in the media.
not
These and other examples reveal that a simple appeal to "justice" does
s to sup-
resolve debates. As a colleague reminded me once, everyone claim
fact, any
port justice; what people differ on is how they defin e justice. ln
se jus-
appeal to justice can be trumped with the qualifier "whose," as in "who
not likely
tice?" If "justice" means ·"what is fair and right," then humans are
do not
to reach consensus on when justice has been achieved because they
share a common definition of the "right."
ln terms ofNahum, this observation compels me to look beyo
nd the clai~s
lik~ ~
tbat the book supports generic "justice" to consider wha t justice looks
d, it 18
Nah~m ªnd who benefits from its particular definition of justice. Indee
ogies-:
precisei~ those "gaps" injustice, the "blind spots," that reveal ideol
gend er_in
~ahsumptions about what is right and natural. When my atten·tion toh desp1te
. oppression I reveal t at,
• poht. tcal
m
um does not extend t notic° · 1ng
Y own self-percepti on, I am 1ess aware of political oppr ' f gen·
f °
der O ession than
.
. forJI1S o
ppression When th e ªttent10n of other interpreters to different
oppressio d ·
womdenr~
they reve~ t~ee_s not extend to noticing the book's violence thagain- sts rea e
· · to patriarchy. ln bo c~se , . .
· iv1ty
ir own lack of .sens1t
reveal how much th . 008
err own biases and self-inter ests inform thetr defin ttl
of justice.
Engagin· g Nahum throu h h . e rnore
. g t e lens of 1deological critique make s I11 at
aware of my own . .ce in ways that bene
. Justi fit sorne
potential for defi rung
 Goct as (An
. gry) Warrior 123
se of others; at the sarne time it remi'nd
. expe º s me th t
the
d no
t be brushed off for the sake of "bigger .
. .
ª rny own concems
1ssues" Nah .
nee manifesto for equal Justice for all, but my · urn 1tself might
no~dbe ~ogical critique helps me tak:e up that cau:ngageme?t with it in light
of 1 eo .. 1 d . e yet again Th .
. hideological cnt1que ea s me to cntique not sim 1 N
wit also to critique myself and the institutions in
:; of us fall short of truly inclusive justice.
:h~ · e dialogue
h ~um anct my worlct
Ic hold power when

Christian Theology and Divine Anger

Engagement
.
with both the implied historical setting of N h ,
· ·· h . . ª um• s metaphor
andits ideolog1cal cnt1que c allenges Chnstians to recogru·ze d'1vme anger not
as an 0ld Testament problem that required a New Testament sol t· b
. f d' . u 10n ut
rather as a powerfu1c1a1m o 1vme concem for human suffering. As Heschel
forcefully argued, the portrait of an impassive, impartial God is not biblical·
the prophets in particular insist on a God passionately invested in huma~
affairs and emotionally affected by their outcomes. When Christians distance
themselves from "an angry God," they fail to grasp that this image of God has
positive potential for causes of justice.
Yet critique of the metaphor underscores that human definitions of God's
justice are shaped by cultural ideologies. Justas Nahum's (and Premnath's)
visions of justice do not encompass justice for women, so must all human
visions of justice be understood as contingent on human understandings. This
insight is easily extended to those with whom we disagree. Christian liberais,
~or example, readily lambaste those who label Hurricane Katri~a's devast~-
tton of New Orleans or the terrorist attacks of9/ll/Ol as outpounngs of God s
~USíice against a morally bankrupt country. Yet the sarne libe~als confideotl,y
tdentify divine justice with the abolition of slavery, the grantmg of wome_n s
voting ng · hts, or desegregat1on.
. Personally, 1 do see God' s J. ustice working
.d
th
through all of the "liberat examples but my encounter wi ~~um re_IDI~ s
1
me th I ' d fimt1ons of Justice
at must continue to listen to those whom my own e_ . d remai·n
rend · · s1st
· Justice an
er tnvisible. Christians must at the sarne time m on .
ºPen to 1 • · f ce enta1ls.
'l'L. earnmg more about what full and true JUS 1 . . &or the way that
Chril u1s. ca11.rior boldness w1th
. .. b
humthty also ears
impbcat10ns l'
tic attempts to
det stians undertake theodicy: both philosophical and pr_agmlabelieve Chris-
1enct th ·1 d suffenng.
tian e goodness of God in the face of evi an a . . they must name,
s lllust ·1· f suuenng.
Prot never blindly accept the inevitab1 ity O pain. At the sarne
ti01ees~ and bring to the divine ear the realities of hu~:1 wrestling with the
' probJt ese discussions suggest that our very _t~eoloJt~standings of hoW ~~
WorJct :~ of evil" is shaped by our own impb~tt ~n te to humanity. Behin
shou}d" work and how God "should re ª e ·
124 Challenging Prophetic Metaphor

h "when bad things happen to good people" and "Wh .

Phrases sue as?" lie assumptions about mora1cause and effect and datfid1d. .I do
to deserve thi s · e IUhon
d
of "bad" an goo · " d" . . . s
. 1 do not suggest that Christtans cease strugghng for ali th
Arthgam, derstand what they can about themselves, their world anctey are
wo to un . .. ali 11 1 . . , Goct
But I do believe ideolog1cal cnttque e s a peop e to butld mto that t ·
. h h ask as
lf-awareness as poss1ble about w y t ey expect the world to 0
much Se . f h . perate
in a particular way and why the fatlure o t ose scnpts challenges belief in
God or in God's goodness and/or power.
Engaging the Divine Warrior metaphor, as engaging the Prophetic Book
as a whole, leads me to a paradoxical conclusion. To be faithful, I must ac:
passionately for the establishment of justice, yet I must also be open to the
possibility that what I believe to be most true and holy may remain only apar-
tia! truth. I believe that Eichrodt, von Rad, and Brueggemann are right in
defining as most "prophetic" the insistence that all institutions, beliefs, and
even ethical formulations remain subordinate to the freedom of God. Ideo-
logical criticism makes that case even more strongly, in its willingness to cri-
tique even the theological formulations that the prophets and their interpreters
hold most dear.