Translations
KJVPrimary
King James VersionThou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.
F.O.G.Secondary
The F.O.GYHWH our Elohim, You answered them; a forgiving El You were to them, yet an avenger of their wrongdoings.
F.O.G.M.
F.O.G MessageYahweh our God, You answered them — You were a God who pardoned them, and yet One who avenged their misdeeds.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleO LORD our God, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, yet an avenger of their misdeeds.
Footnotes
El nosa' (אֵל נֹשֵׂא) uses the verb nasa' — to lift, to carry, to bear away — the very root behind the scapegoat carrying Israel's sins into the wilderness (Lev. 16:22). Yet in the same breath comes noqem 'al 'alilotam — 'an avenger upon their deeds' — holding the same people to account for covenant violations. The verse likely alludes to episodes like the golden calf (Ex. 32) and Miriam's leprosy (Num. 12), where YHWH simultaneously forgave and disciplined. This is not contradiction but the holy tension at the heart of covenant love: neither permissive nor merely punitive, but righteously relational. F.O.G. holds both poles in unresolved tension; F.O.G.M. draws this out as a portrait of holy love that cannot overlook sin even as it refuses to abandon the sinner.
