Four Faces of Jealousy

Last night I got a call from a step-brother with whom I recently reconnected. When I was in high school, and before he became a step-sibling, I used to babysit this kid and his three younger brothers. He is now a balding man in his 40's but in many ways still the kid I once knew. Our paths crossed again at the funeral services for his father. He jumped back into the "little brother role" eagerly, needing the emotional support in his time of grieving.

After the pleasantries were exchanged he asked if I was going to fuss at him; odd question, I thought. He stated "You always fussed at us when we needed it." I asked if he needed it. He said he did. "Okay…what do you need to be fussed at for?", I asked. He said he struggled with jealousy. That's a biggie!

Lives are destroyed by jealousy and I've always considered it a destructive, negative , waste of emotion and energy. Yet, we have Scripture saying God is a jealous God. This took me straight to my Hebrew-Greek Study Bible where I found there are four separate Hebrew words for jealousy.

Qana – is a root verb meaning 'to make jealous' (in a bad sense) strong emotion for possession of object or position of others (envy); fear of losing possessions or position

Qanna – adjective, is the word always used to describe God's intolerance for worship of other gods and His anger in judgment toward idol worshippers.

Qinah – noun, means zeal, jealousy, to be jealous or zealous with passion and emotion that is greater than a person's wrath and anger, can be good or bad; but such passion can be rottenness to the bone (their words, not mine); used to describe a spirit of jealousy, which comes on a man toward his wife; or is used most often to describe God's zeal, which will accomplish His purposes and be the instrument of His wrath in judgment.

Qanah – verb, meaning to provoke to jealousy to purchase, possess, recover or redeem property

I found it interesting that Qinah, the only one described as 'can be good or bad' and the only one to say it is stronger than man's anger, describes both the negative spirit of jealousy in man AND the zealous wrath of God to accomplish his purposes.   

If I had to sum up what I took from this, it would be that human jealousy is about wanting to possess objects (relationships) or position (envy). God's jealously is entirely different. We cannot compare the two, as in justifying man's jealousy by saying even God was jealous. It is not the same at all, thus the 'good or bad' definition.