expresses some kind of holding back, but whether this is in terms of a delay on his part or in terms of his long-suffering nature remains to be decided. Catchpole’s survey (NovT 19 [1977] 93–98) of the texts in which this root is applied to God’s People (Exod 34:6; Num 14:18; Pss 86:15[85:15]; 103[102]:8; Joel 2:13; Wis 15:1; Sir 5:4) demonstrates that the latter is to be preferred in a context determined to any degree by Jewish culture (the most attractive of the suggestions built upon the former