Aramaic word · H1149

בְּנַס

benas

be angry

To become angry or indignant. It appears only here in the Bible.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

(P'al) to be angry

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Daniel 2:12

Range of meaning

To become angry or indignant. It appears only here in the Bible.

Against the English

KJV, ESV, WEB and BSB have "angry"; NASB has "indignant". Both fit. The word is used for the onset of anger.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb is rare. The lexicons (HALOT, BDB Aramaic) treat it as "be angry" and draw mainly on later Aramaic dialects and on its pairing here with qəṣap̄. Because it occurs only once, its exact shade is somewhat uncertain.

Where it appears

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 2:12 בְּנַ֖ס he was angry

    This response made the king so angry and furious that he gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

    Here: This verb appears nowhere else in the Bible. It means to become angry or indignant. It marks the moment the anger rises: the king "flared up."

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.