kaas · provoke, vex

What it means

kaas (כַּעַס) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “provoke, vex”.

Provoke to anger: irritate someone, cause him anger or grief; also to be vexed.

How to say it

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. To stir up someone's anger by what one does, like worshiping idols before YHWH.
2. To feel irritation or anger inside.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To vex, to anger; in the causative form, to provoke someone to anger by what one does. It is said many times of Israel, which provokes YHWH with its idols. From the same root is the noun כַּעַס, ‘vexation’ or grief.

• Provoking YHWH to anger with idols Deuteronomy 32:211 Kings 14:92 Kings 21:6
• “To provoke me to anger”: the reproach in the prophets Jeremiah 7:18Jeremiah 25:7Ezekiel 8:17
• The rival who provokes Hannah 1 Samuel 1:6
• A person becoming vexed 2 Chronicles 16:10Ecclesiastes 7:9

How we translate it

The causative form is rendered “provoke to anger” throughout (“provoke me” 13 times, “provoking him to anger” 5, “provoked to anger” 4), in Deuteronomy, Kings and the prophets alike (“to provoke me to anger”, Jeremiah 7:18; Ezekiel 8:17), so that the reader recognizes the formula. The simple form, when someone becomes angry, is “be vexed” (Ecclesiastes 7:9) or “was angry” (“Asa was angry with the seer”, 2 Chronicles 16:10).

How it is translated

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

• provoke me ×13
• provoking him to anger ×5
• provoke ×4
• provoked to anger ×4
• provoking me to anger ×3
• they provoked him to anger ×3
• be vexed ×2
• provoke YHWH to anger ×2
• provoke him to anger ×2
• provoke to anger ×2
• others ×14

Where it appears

• Deuteronomy×6
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×10
• 2 Kings×7
• 2 Chronicles×4
• Nehemiah×2
• Psalms×3
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×11
• Ezekiel×4
• Hosea×1

• Deuteronomy 4:25

  When you father children and children’s children, and you have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly and make a carved image, the form of anything, and do what is evil in the eyes of YHWH your Elohim, provoking him to anger,

• Deuteronomy 9:18

  Then I lay prostrate before YHWH, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; bread I did not eat, and water I did not drink, because of all your sin that you had sinned by doing what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger.

• Deuteronomy 31:29

  For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the days to come, because you will do what is evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands.”

• Deuteronomy 32:16

  They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.

• Deuteronomy 32:21

  They have provoked me to jealousy with what is not El; they have provoked me to anger with their worthless idols. So I will provoke them to jealousy with what is not a people; with a foolish nation I will provoke them to anger.

• Judges 2:12

  They abandoned YHWH, the Elohim of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they went after other gods, from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and they bowed down to them and provoked YHWH to anger.

• 1 Samuel 1:6

  And her rival would provoke her bitterly in order to irritate her, because YHWH had closed up her womb.

• 1 Samuel 1:7

  And so he would do year by year; as often as she went up to the house of YHWH, so she would provoke her, and she would weep and not eat.

• 1 Kings 14:9

  but you have done evil more than all who were before you, and you have gone and made for yourself other gods and cast images to provoke me to anger, and me you have thrown behind your back;

• 1 Kings 14:15

  YHWH will strike Israel, as the reed sways in the water; and he will uproot Israel from off this good land that he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River Euphrates, because they have made their Asherahs, provoking YHWH to anger.

• 1 Kings 15:30

  because of the sins of Jeroboam that he sinned and with which he made Israel sin, by his provocation with which he provoked to anger YHWH, the Elohim of Israel.

• 1 Kings 16:2

  “Because I raised you up from the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel sin, provoking me to anger with their sins,

• 1 Kings 16:7

  Also, through Jehu son of Hanani the prophet, the word of YHWH came to Baasha and to his house, because of all the evil that he did in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, becoming like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck him.

• 1 Kings 16:13

  because of all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned and with which they made Israel sin, provoking to anger YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, with their worthless idols.

• 1 Kings 16:26

  He walked in all the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and in his sin, with which he made Israel sin, provoking to anger YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, with their worthless idols.

• 1 Kings 16:33

  Ahab also made the Asherah; and Ahab did still more to provoke to anger YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

• 1 Kings 21:22

  and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger and made Israel sin.’

• 1 Kings 22:53

  He served Baal and bowed down to him, and provoked to anger YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, according to all that his father had done.

• 2 Kings 17:11

  They burned incense there on all the high places, like the nations whom YHWH carried into exile from before them; and they did evil things to provoke YHWH to anger.

• 2 Kings 17:17

  They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divinations and read omens, and sold themselves to do what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, to provoke him to anger.

• 2 Kings 21:6

  He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and read omens, and appointed those who call up the dead and spiritists; he did much evil in the eyes of YHWH, to provoke him to anger.

• 2 Kings 21:15

  because they have done what is evil in my eyes and have been provoking me to anger from the day that their fathers came out of Egypt until this day.’”

• 2 Kings 22:17

  because they have abandoned me and burned incense to other gods, so as to provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands; so my fury will be kindled against this place and will not be quenched.

• 2 Kings 23:19

  Also all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke YHWH to anger, Josiah removed; and he did to them according to all the deeds that he had done at Bethel.

• 2 Kings 23:26

  Nevertheless, YHWH did not turn from the burning of his great anger with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.

• 2 Chronicles 16:10

  Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the house of the stocks, for he was in a rage with him over this. And Asa crushed some of the people at that time.

• 2 Chronicles 28:25

  In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger YHWH, the Elohim of his fathers.

• 2 Chronicles 33:6

  He made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, read omens, practiced sorcery, and appointed those who call up the dead and spiritists; he multiplied doing evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger.

• 2 Chronicles 34:25

  because they have abandoned me and have burned incense to other gods, so as to provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; and my fury will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.’

• Nehemiah 4:1

  It happened that when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he burned with anger and was greatly irritated, and he mocked the Jews.

• Nehemiah 4:5

  Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you, for they have provoked to anger in front of the builders.

• Psalms 78:58

  And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and with their carved images they made him jealous.

• Psalms 106:29

  And they provoked him to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

• Psalms 112:10

  The wicked will see it and be vexed; he will grind his teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked will perish.

• Ecclesiastes 5:17

  Also all his days he eats in darkness, with much vexation and his sickness and wrath.

• Ecclesiastes 7:9

  Do not be hasty in your spirit to be vexed, for vexation rests in the bosom of the senseless.

• Isaiah 65:3

  the people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in the gardens and burning incense on the bricks;

• Jeremiah 7:18

  The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of the heavens; and they pour out libations to other gods to provoke me to anger.

• Jeremiah 7:19

  Is it me they provoke to anger? declares YHWH. Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?

• Jeremiah 8:19

  Listen! The voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is YHWH not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images, with foreign vapors?”

And 14 more times.