Take the case of a person who is corrected because of being guilty of some neglect or wrong. If he lets pride get in the way, he may become very angry about this. That is what happened to Judean King Asa. When corrected by the prophet Hanani for having shown a lack of faith, Asa became very angry. He put Hanani in “the house of the stocks” and also began oppressing others of his subjects. (2 Chron. 16:7-10) Instead of giving vent to anger, Asa should have taken the reasonable view of the situation. He should have kept in mind that Hanani was speaking, not of his own originality, but as Jehovah’s messenger. It was a time for Asa to acknowledge his wrong and to express sincere repentance. Humility could have helped Asa to keep anger in check. So if we are going to heed the Bible’s counsel to “let anger alone,” we, too, need to cultivate humility.

Just how dangerous anger can be is illustrated in the case of Cain. When he saw God’s favor manifested upon his brother Abel, but not upon himself, Cain became enraged. Though given divine warning, Cain yielded to wrong thinking and murdered his brother.​—Gen. 4:4-8.