Is God being long of nose?

[BryanW]

Either Karl or Jimmy said on a CA live show that if we read the Bible in the original Hebrew there would be a couple passages that read “God was long of nose”. This being ancient metaphor for being very patient. Did I get this right? Could I please have the passage numbers? I find it very helpful in talking about scripture.

 

[Jan_Wakelin]

The Hebrew word aph can mean nostril, nose, face or anger. The Hebrew word arek can mean long, patience, slow or who is slow. So a translation could say of God, that he is slow to anger or he has a long nose!

The relationship between nose/nostril and anger could be due to the fact that the nostrils flare when one is angry.

What ever the reason for this confusing literal translation, it clearly does not relate to God’s physical appearance but his patience.

Some passages where “slow to anger” in relation to God can be found is:

Ex. 34:6;Nu.14:18;Ne.9:17;Ps.86:15;Ps.103:8;Ps.145:8;Jl 2:13;Jo 4:2;Nah. 1:3;Sir.5:4