O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them,
O YHWH, our god, you personally answered them. You were a forgiving God to them,
and one who exempted them from punishment. (Psalm 99:8 My translation)
I stumbled upon, or perhaps I should say I stumbled OVER, Psalm 99:8 in my devotional reading this morning. In context, the verse is referring to the intimate relationship that Moses, Aaron, and Samuel all enjoyed as YHWH’s priests. I was deeply bothered however by the psalmist’s twin assertions that YHWH was a forgiving God to them but also an avenger of their wrongdoings. I could not for the life of me understand how YHWH could both forgive and avenge the same person for the same sins. Afterall, biblical forgiveness precludes revenge, even for God. If God avenges our wrongdoing, then there is nothing to forgive. He has imposed the penalty due to our sin, and exacted from us payment in full for the debt. Nothing is forgiven.
These were my thoughts upon reading the English translation, in this case, the ESV. This inner conflict made me suspicious and so I looked up Psalm 99:8 in my Hebrew Bible and translated the verse for myself. That is when I discovered a fascinating and extremely significant ambiguity in the text. Read more…