Bible Strands
Psalms 130:4
But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the LORD, having just argued in v.3 that no one could stand if God kept track of iniquities. This is the pivot from despair to the one ground that makes forgiveness possible.
The words — סליחה (seliḥah) carries the sense of release or being let go, not merely pardon. The purpose clause lands on תִּוָּרֵא (tiwre'), "you may be feared" — reverence, not casualness, is the expected response.
The thread — Psalms 86:5 names God as "kind and forgiving" and Isaiah 55:7 calls the wicked to return so He may have compassion; both echo the premise that forgiveness is God's character, not a transaction. Jeremiah 33:8 extends it to a corporate cleansing from iniquity.
Why it lands — The verse ties forgiveness to reverence: God forgives, and the proper response is to take Him seriously, not to treat His mercy as a free pass. It asks the reader to hold both truths at once — that he is let go, and that the One who let him go is not to be trifled with.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 33:8 And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
- Psalms 86:5 For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.
- 1 Kings 8:39 be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and act, and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of all men—
- Daniel 9:9 To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him
- 2 Corinthians 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
- Micah 7:18 Who 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?
- Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
- Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
- Hosea 3:5 Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.