The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
- KJV The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
- NKJV The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.
- NASB ¶The Lord is gracious and compassionate; Slow to anger and great in mercy.
- NLT The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and rich in steadfast love. This is the heart of His self-revealed character toward His people.
Overview
This verse echoes God's self-disclosure to Moses at Sinai (Exodus 34:6), a confession repeated throughout Scripture. It assures sinners that God's default disposition toward the penitent is mercy, not wrath. This grace and loving kindness find their fullest expression in Christ, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Num 14:18‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’
- Ps 103:8The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.
- Ps 86:5For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.
- Ps 100:5For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.
- Ps 116:5The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.
- Rom 5:20–21The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
- Ps 86:15But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.
- Mic 7:18–20Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Exod 34:6–7Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
- Eph 2:4But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
- Jonah 4:2So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.
- Eph 1:8that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
- Dan 9:9To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him
- Eph 1:6to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 145:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.