AC 10618 - To Be Angry

AC 10618 [1-2]

Long-suffering with angers.
(Exodus 34:6)

That this means the Divine clemency,
is evident from the meaning of
“long-suffering with angers,”
when said of Jehovah,
as being that He long endures the evils of a person,
for to be “long-suffering” denotes
to endure and bear for a long time;
and “angers” denote the evils with a person.
The reason why “angers,” when said of Jehovah,
denote the evils with people,
is that evil becomes angry, and good never;
and evil is with the person and never with the Lord,
for the Lord is good itself.
Nevertheless anger is attributed to the Lord,
because it so appears to a person
when he does not obtain what he desires,
and when he is punished on account of evil.
As then “long-suffering with angers,”
when said of Jehovah,
denotes long to endure the evils with people,
it follows from this
that thereby is meant the Divine clemency.

As regards anger,
be it known further that evil becomes angry,
and good never,
for the reason that to be angry is to will evil to another,
which good cannot do,
for good consists in willing the good of another.
All evil has within it enmity, hatred, revenge, and cruelty;
in these and from these evil has its delight.
Moreover, evil hates good,
because good is opposed to its delights.
Consequently when evil cannot injure good,
which it is always in the endeavor to do,
it is first indignant, and afterward is angry.
Whether you say evil, or an evil person, it is the same,
for evil is in a person as in its subject.
And as such is the nature of evil against good,
such it is against the Divine,
for all good is the Divine with man,
because it is from the Divine.
From this it is
that an evil person is always angry against the Divine,
although outwardly he speaks differently before people.