Grow With Me
Grow With Me

אַף

af · anger, nose

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H639 · appears 276 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

af (אַף) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “anger, nose”.

Nose, nostrils. Since breathing grows hard in anger, the same word also means "anger"; sometimes "face".

How to say it

af

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

  1. The nose, the part of the face we breathe through.
  2. A person's face: it is bowed to the ground to honor, and "before someone" is in front of his face.
  3. The rage of one who snorts; the "long of nose" is slow to become angry.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Nose. BDB notes that from there it means the face and, from the rapid breathing of anger, anger itself.

Historical and cultural background

The expression of Exodus 34:6, “slow to anger”, is in Hebrew literally “long of nostrils”.

How we translate it

“Anger” 223 times, “face” 17, “nose” 14, “nostrils” 12. It is translated “anger”, and חֵמָה, another word, “fury”. חָרָה אַף is translated “his anger burned”. Where the text describes the body, “nose” or “nostrils” is kept (Genesis 2:7; Song of Songs 7:4).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

  • anger ×223
  • face ×17
  • nose ×14
  • nostrils ×12
  • faces ×4
  • before ×2
  • double ×1
  • patience ×1
  • snout ×1
  • wrath ×1

Related words

Comes from

Words that come from it

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

  • Genesis 2:7

    And YHWH Elohim formed the man from dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

  • Genesis 3:19

    By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

  • Genesis 7:22

    Everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils, of all that was on dry land, died.

  • Genesis 19:1

    The two messengers came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

  • Genesis 24:47

    Then I asked her and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her hands.

  • Genesis 27:45

    until your brother’s anger turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

  • Genesis 30:2

    Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of Elohim, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

  • Genesis 39:19

    When his lord heard the words of his wife that she spoke to him, saying, “According to these words your slave treated me,” his anger burned.

  • Genesis 42:6

    Joseph was the governor over the land; he was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.

  • Genesis 44:18

    Then Judah approached him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word in the ears of my lord, and do not let your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.

  • Genesis 48:12

    Then Joseph brought them out from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the ground.

  • Genesis 49:6

    Into their council let my soul not enter; to their assembly let my honor not be joined; for in their anger they killed men, and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.

  • Genesis 49:7

    Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their fury, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

  • Exodus 4:14

    Then the anger of YHWH burned against Moses, and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can surely speak. And look, he is also coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

  • Exodus 11:8

    Then all these servants of yours will come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who follow you!’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

  • Exodus 15:8

    By the breath of your nostrils the waters piled up; the streams stood up like a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

  • Exodus 22:24

    and my anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will become widows and your sons orphans.

  • Exodus 32:10

    Now let me alone, so that my anger may burn against them and I may consume them; and I will make you into a great nation.”

  • Exodus 32:11

    But Moses pleaded before YHWH his Elohim and said, “Why, YHWH, does your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?

  • Exodus 32:12

    Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the ground’? Turn from the heat of your anger and relent concerning the evil planned against your people.

  • Exodus 32:19

    And it happened, as soon as he came near to the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, that Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

  • Exodus 32:22

    And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

  • Exodus 34:6

    And YHWH passed by before him and proclaimed, “YHWH, YHWH, an El merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness,

  • Numbers 11:1

    And the people became like those who complain of misfortune in the ears of YHWH; and YHWH heard and his anger burned, and the fire of YHWH blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

  • Numbers 11:10

    And Moses heard the people weeping by their families, each man at the entrance of his tent; and the anger of YHWH burned greatly, and in the eyes of Moses it was evil.

  • Numbers 11:20

    but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised YHWH who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

  • Numbers 11:33

    The meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, when the anger of YHWH burned against the people, and YHWH struck the people with a very great blow.

  • Numbers 12:9

    And the anger of YHWH burned against them, and he departed.

  • Numbers 14:18

    ‘YHWH is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’

  • Numbers 22:22

    But the anger of Elohim burned because he was going, and the angel of YHWH took his stand in the road as an opponent to him. Now he was riding on his donkey, and his two young men were with him.

  • Numbers 22:27

    And the donkey saw the angel of YHWH and lay down under Balaam; and Balaam’s anger burned, and he struck the donkey with the stick.

  • Numbers 22:31

    Then YHWH uncovered the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of YHWH standing in the road, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed and prostrated himself on his face.

  • Numbers 24:10

    And Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “To curse my enemies I called you, and look, you have done nothing but bless them these three times!

  • Numbers 25:3

    Israel joined itself to Baal-peor, and the anger of YHWH burned against Israel.

  • Numbers 25:4

    YHWH said to Moses, “Take all the heads of the people and hang them for YHWH in front of the sun, and the burning anger of YHWH will turn away from Israel.”

  • Numbers 32:10

    YHWH’s anger burned on that day, and he swore, saying,

  • Numbers 32:13

    YHWH’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the eyes of YHWH was finished.

  • Numbers 32:14

    And look, you have risen in place of your fathers, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning anger of YHWH against Israel.

  • Deuteronomy 6:15

    for a jealous El is YHWH your Elohim in your midst, lest the anger of YHWH your Elohim be kindled against you and he destroy you from the face of the ground.

  • Deuteronomy 7:4

    for he will turn away your son from following me, and they will serve other gods; and the anger of YHWH will be kindled against you, and he will destroy you quickly.

And 236 more times.