The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
- BSB The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.
- 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 14:18The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
- Ps 103:8The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
- Ps 86:5For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
- Ps 100:5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
- Ps 116:5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
- Rom 5:20–21Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
- Ps 86:15But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
- Mic 7:18–20Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
- Exod 34:6–7And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
- Eph 2:4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
- Jonah 4:2And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
- Eph 1:8Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
- Dan 9:9To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
- Eph 1:6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
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.