Yet he is compassionate. He forgives sin and does not destroy. He often holds back his anger, and does not stir up his fury. ¹ 

biblegateway Psa 78:38

But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath.

Yet He was compassionate; He atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them . He often turned His anger aside and did not unleash all His wrath.

But he is compassionate. He forgave their sin. He did not destroy them. He restrained his anger many times. He did not display all of his fury.

biblegateway Psa 78:38

Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.

bibleoremus Psa 78:38

Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; often he restrained his anger, and did not stir up all his wrath.

Yet he was merciful, wiping out guilt and not destroying. Time and again he restrained his wrath and did not give vent to his anger.

biblegateway Psa 78:38

But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, And did not destroy them . Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, And did not stir up all His wrath;

But he, [being] full of compassion, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

biblegateway Psa 78:38

Yet he is compassionate. He forgives sin and does not destroy. He often holds back his anger, and does not stir up his fury. ¹ 

¹ tn One could translate v. 38 in the past tense (“he was compassionate…forgave sin and did not destroy…held back his anger, and did not stir up his fury”), but the imperfect verbal forms are probably best understood as generalizing. Verse 38 steps back briefly from the narrational summary of Israel’s history and lays the theological basis for v. 39, which focuses on God’s mercy toward sinful Israel.