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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 12:19 - 12:19
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Give place unto wrath (δότε τόπον τῇ ὀργῇ)
Wrath has the article: the wrath, referring to the divine wrath. Give place is give room for it to work. Do not get in its way, as you will do by taking vengeance into your own hands. Hence as Rev., in margin, and American Rev., in text, give place unto the wrath of God.
Vengeance is mine (ἐμοὶ ἐκδίκησις)
Lit., unto Me is vengeance. The Rev. brings out better the force of the original: Vengeance belongeth unto Me. The quotation is from Deu 32:35. Hebrew, To me belongs vengeance and requital. Septuagint, In the day of vengeance I will requite. The antithesis between vengeance by God and by men is not found in Deuteronomy. Compare Heb 10:30. Dante, listening to Peter Damiano, who describes the abuses of the Church, hears a great cry. Beatrice says:
“The cry has startled thee so much,
In which, if thou hadst understood its prayers,
Already would be known to thee the vengeance
Which thou shalt look upon before thou diest.
The sword above here smiteth not in haste,
Nor tardily, howe'er it seem to him
Who, fearing or desiring, waits for it.”
“Paradiso,” xxii, 12-18.
Compare Plato: Socrates, “And what of doing evil in return for evil, which is the morality of the many - is that just or not? Crito, Not just. Socrates, For doing evil to another is the same as injuring him? Crito, Very true. Socrates, Then we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to any one, whatever evil we may have suffered from him.... This opinion has never been held, and never will be held by any considerable number of persons” (“Crito,” 49). Epictetus, being asked how a man could injure his enemy, replied, “By living the best life himself.” The idea of personal vindictiveness must be eliminated from the word here. It is rather full meting out of justice to all parties.