Anger

• Genesis 4:6-7

6) And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

7) If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Note: The KJV uses the word "he" here. There are other translations which have used the word "it". "He" is very appropriate, since the pronoun here is masculine. Translation that render "it" make it appear that the thing being referred to is sin. However, sin is feminine. The masculine antecedent, here, would appear to be cain's countenance, which is here used to refer to his anger. So the implication would be that Cain's anger's desire would be towards him and that he would rule over it, or translating a little differently, it would appear to advocate that he rule over his anger.

• Moses 5:23

23) If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee; and except thou shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up, and it shall be unto thee according to his desire. And thou shalt rule over him;

Note: I bring this verse up as the JST for Genesis 4:7. It contradicts the idea that the original intent of the text was to advocate for controlling anger. I think this makes more sense. The idea of Cain's anger's desire being toward him is a little bit of a head scratcher. The idea that Satan was omitted makes everything fall into place a little better.

• D&C 5:8

"Oh, this unbelieving and stiffnecked generation—mine anger is kindled against them."

• Mark 3:5

"And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other."

• “Tempering Our Tempers,” Ensign, Feb 2008, 54–57

Notes

It is popular to condemn the emotion of anger, probably even more popular than condemning sadness. Anger is frequently associated with violence, revenge, and poor critical thinking, and, therefore, it seems clear that anger needs to be controlled.. Nevertheless, it is clear that, like sadness, God feels anger. It would be nice to expand more on this topic to understand anger better.

Cross-References

• The 7 Deadly Sins
• Charity
• Sadness