H2534 — חֵמָה (chemah)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H2534
Original: חֵמָה
Transliteration: chêmâh
Pronunciation: khay-maw
Part of Speech: Feminine noun
Root: From yacham (H3179) — to be hot; heat as the physical metaphor for anger
Occurrences: 117 unique verses, 133 tokens across 20 books
First Occurrence: Gen 27:44 — "tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury (chemah) turn away"
Hapax Legomenon: No
Aramaic variant: chema (חֵמָא) in Dan 11:44

Lexicon Definition¶

From a primitive root meaning "heat"; figuratively, anger, poison (from its fever):—anger, bottles, hot displeasure, furious(-ly, -ry), heat, indignation, poison, rage, wrath(-ful).

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation Family	Count	%
fury / my fury / in fury / his fury / the fury (all fury-forms)	~60	~51%
wrath / my wrath / the wrath / thy wrath / his wrath (all wrath-forms)	~33	~28%
furious / furiously / in a rage	7	6%
poison / the poison	6	5%
hot displeasure / in thy hot displeasure	3	3%
indignation	1	1%
heat	1	1%
bottles	1	1%
Other (and, with, because, etc.)	~5	~4%

The split between "fury" and "wrath" largely tracks book: fury dominates Jeremiah/Ezekiel/Isaiah; wrath dominates Proverbs/Esther.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Nahum	2	4.3
Esther	6	3.6
Ezekiel	30	2.4
Lamentations	2	1.3
Jeremiah	16	1.2
Proverbs	9	1.0
Micah	1	1.0
Isaiah	12	0.9
Daniel	3	0.8
2 Chronicles	5	0.6
Zechariah	1	0.5
Deuteronomy	5	0.5
Psalms	13	0.5
Hosea	1	0.5
2 Kings	3	0.4
Job	4	0.4
Genesis	1	0.1
Leviticus	1	0.1
Numbers	1	0.1
2 Samuel	1	0.1

Pattern notes: Highly concentrated in prophetic-judgment literature (Ezekiel + Jeremiah + Isaiah + Lamentations = 60 of 117 uses, 51%). Ezekiel alone accounts for 30 uses — more than any other book. Virtually absent from the Torah narrative outside Deuteronomy's covenant curses. Esther's unusual density reflects its repeated theme of royal rage (Ahasuerus, Haman). Proverbs supplies most of the wisdom-literature uses (human rage vs. soft answer).

Semantic Categories¶

1. Divine Wrath Poured Out (Judgment Formula)¶

The most frequent usage — God's fury as the active force behind judgment, typically with verbs of pouring (shaphak), accomplishing (kalah), or causing to rest (nuach). - Jer 7:20 — "mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place" - Eze 7:8 — "Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger" - Eze 5:13 — "I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted" - Lam 4:11 — "The LORD hath accomplished his fury"

2. The Cup / Wine of Fury¶

A distinct metaphorical cluster where chemah is liquid poured into a cup and drunk by nations under judgment. - Isa 51:17 — "drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury" - Isa 51:22 — "I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury" - Jer 25:15 — "Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations... to drink it" - Isa 63:6 — "I will... make them drunk in my fury"

3. Burning Heat (Physical Metaphor)¶

The root meaning surfaces where chemah is paired with fire, burning, or whirlwind imagery — heat as both cause and consequence. - Deu 29:23 — "brimstone, and salt, and burning... his anger, and in his wrath (chemah)" - Isa 66:15 — "render his anger with fury (chemah), and his rebuke with flames of fire" - Nah 1:6 — "his fury is poured out like fire" - Jer 4:4 — "lest my fury come forth like fire"

4. Human Rage (Royal, Wisdom, Interpersonal)¶

Chemah applied to human subjects — often kings or angry men, with the connotation of violent or dangerous temper. - Gen 27:44 — Esau's fury toward Jacob - Est 1:12 — "the king was very wroth, and his anger burned in him (chemah)" - Pro 16:14 — "The wrath (chemah) of a king is as messengers of death" - Pro 27:4 — "Wrath (chemah) is cruel, and anger is outrageous"

5. Poison / Venom¶

A specialized figurative use where the "heat" of chemah is applied to serpent venom or poisoned weapons. - Deu 32:24 — "I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison (chemah) of serpents" - Deu 32:33 — "Their wine is the poison (chemah) of dragons" - Job 6:4 — "the arrows of the Almighty... the poison (chemah) whereof drinketh up my spirit" - Psa 58:4 — "Their poison (chemah) is like the poison of a serpent"

6. Wrath Appeased / Turned Away¶

Chemah as the object of relenting — turned away, pacified, made to rest. - Num 25:11 — "hath turned my wrath (chemah) away from the children of Israel" - Pro 15:1 — "A soft answer turneth away wrath (chemah)" - Pro 21:14 — "a reward in the bosom strong wrath (chemah)" - Eze 16:42 — "So will I make my fury toward thee to rest"

7. Stacked Intensifier with Other Wrath Words¶

Chemah appears beside aph (H639) or charon (H2740) in a high-frequency doublet pattern, especially in prophetic judgment oracles. - Deu 9:19 — "the anger (aph) and hot displeasure (chemah)" - Jer 21:5 — "in anger (aph), and in fury (chemah), and in great wrath" - Isa 42:25 — "the fury (chemah) of his anger (aph)" - Mic 5:15 — "vengeance in anger (aph) and fury (chemah)"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אַף (aph)	H639	39x (33%)	"anger and fury" — the defining wrath doublet
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	34x (29%)	Fury attributed to the LORD specifically
עַל (al)	H5921	43x (37%)	"fury upon" — directional object of wrath
לֹא (lo)	H3808	27x (23%)	Negation contexts (unsparing, not pity)
שָׁפַךְ (shaphak)	H8210	18x (15%)	"pour out fury" — the defining verb pairing
יָד (yad)	H3027	15x (13%)	"hand... of fury" — the agent of wrath
כָּלָה (kalah)	H3615	13x (11%)	"accomplish fury" — fury brought to completion
אֵשׁ (esh)	H784	10x (9%)	Fire imagery with fury
פָּנִים (panim)	H6440	15x (13%)	"face" — fury in the divine presence
אֶרֶץ (erets)	H776	11x (9%)	Fury poured out "on the land"

Word Family / Near-Synonym Cluster¶

See WG-hebrew-wrath.md for the full seven-word cluster. Closest semantic neighbors:

H2740 חָרוֹן (charon) — a burning, fierce heat (from charah, "to burn"); almost always of God. Shares heat-metaphor root with chemah but narrower in usage (40 vs. 117).
H639 אַף (aph) — anger (from the flaring nostril); the broadest and most frequent anger word (269 uses). Pairs with chemah in the most common wrath doublet.
H5678 עֶבְרָה (ebrah) — overflow, outburst of passion. Narrower (34 uses); emphasizes the surge-and-spillover aspect.
H7110 קֶצֶף (qetseph) — splinter, outburst; the sudden explosive anger (29 uses).
H2195 זַעַם (zaam) — indignation, the froth-at-the-mouth fury (22 uses); especially of God's displeasure at sin.

Synonyms¶

No discrete synonym list was returned by search_relationships.py for H2534.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H2534.

Easily Confused Words (shared KJV translations)¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
אַף (aph)	H639	"wrath," "the wrath," "my wrath," "his wrath," "thy wrath"	aph is the primary, general anger word (flaring nostril metaphor); chemah is the visceral burning/venom — more intense and more often "poured" or "drunk"
קֶצֶף (qetseph)	H7110	"wrath"	qetseph is a splintering outburst (sudden, fragmenting); chemah is sustained burning fury
חָרוֹן (charon)	H2740	"wrath," "my wrath," "the fury," "thy wrath"	charon shares the heat metaphor but is typically qualified ("charon aph" = "fierceness of anger"); chemah stands alone and carries the poison/venom overtone
עֶבְרָה (ebrah)	H5678	"wrath," "my wrath," "his wrath"	ebrah is overflow/surge (Psa 78:49); chemah is burning heat (the hot inner state, not the spillover)
כַּעַס (kaas)	H3708	"the wrath"	kaas is vexation/provocation (what others stir up in the subject); chemah is the heat itself
רֹאשׁ (rosh)	H7219	"the poison"	rosh is a specific plant/toxin (gall, hemlock); chemah as "poison" is metaphorical heat-as-venom

UBS Semantic Domains¶

Code	Domain Label	Notes
001002010007	Liquids	`search_relationships.py` groups chemah with liquid terms, fitting the word's poison/venom branch and its repeated imagery as something poured out or drunk.
002004001001001	Desire	The relationship tool also places chemah in a heat/intensity field; this is secondary in the study, but it matches the root-level metaphor of burning passion.
002001002002	Angry	Core wrath field for burning anger, fury, and divine indignation — the study's dominant usage.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
θυμός (thymos)	G2372	87	27.69	Primary equivalent — "passionate fury, breathing hard"
ὀργή (orge)	G3709	43	19.92	Secondary — "settled/judicial wrath"
ζῆλος (zelos)	G2205	9	13.73	"heat/zeal" — preserves the heat root
ἐκχέω (ekcheo)	G1632	15	12.92	"pour out" — the pouring formula
ἐκκαίω (ekkaio)	G1572	8	12.02	"burn deeply" — preserves the fire imagery
ἐκδίκησις (ekdikesis)	G1557	7	10.03	"vengeance/retribution" — when chemah becomes the judicial act
ἀσπίς (aspis)	G785	3	7.06	"asp/serpent" — the poison-of-serpents usage

The θυμός/ὀργή split is revealing: LXX translators chose θυμός ~2:1 over ὀργή for chemah, consistently categorizing chemah as the hotter, more passionate of the two Greek wrath words. This LXX choice carries into Revelation's cup-of-wrath imagery, where both θυμός and ὀργή appear.