βούλομαι (Boulomai)

MEANINGTo will, intend, desire --- often with emphasis on deliberate, purposeful intention. Synonymous with thelō in many contexts but can carry a more settled, resolute quality of intention.

GRAMMARPresent active participle in 2 Peter 3:9 (boulomenos --- being not willing / not desiring). The participle describes God's ongoing settled disposition: the reason for his patient delay is his consistent not-willing that any should perish.

SIGNIFICANCE2 Peter 3:9's boulomenos establishes that God's patience before judgment is motivated by genuine desire for all to reach repentance. The Lord delays not from weakness or indifference but from genuine salvific desire for all. This is erekh appayim (slow to anger) in its NT expression and Thread 1's most explicit NT patience statement.

KEY VERSE / SCRIPTURES2 Peter 3:9 (not boulomenos that any should perish, but that all reach repentance); Acts 18:15; 1 Timothy 2:8; James 1:18.

CROSS-REFERENCES2 Peter 3:9 · θέλω thelō (1 Timothy 2:4 --- synonymous) · אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם erekh appayim (OT patience)