- Name 35 of 70The LORD God of Recompences
- HebrewEl gemulot
- In plain wordsThe God who pays back, who settles every account in full
- Where to find itJeremiah 51:56, in the prophecy against Babylon
The LORD God of recompences is a name Jeremiah gave to God while announcing the fall of Babylon, the superpower of his day. A recompence is a repayment, what comes back to someone for what they have done. In Hebrew the name is El gemulot, the God of repayments. It promises that no cruelty slips past Him and that every account will be settled in full (Jeremiah 51:56).
A prophecy against the empire that seemed unbeatable
Babylon had already beaten Egypt in battle, taken King Jehoiachin of Judah into exile, and carried off many of Jerusalem's leaders. Soon it would burn Jerusalem and the temple. Its walls were huge and its armies feared everywhere.
Jeremiah was in an odd spot. For years he had told Judah that Babylon would win and that they should not fight it. To many people he sounded like a traitor. He even wrote to the exiles in Babylon and told them to settle down, build houses and seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives
(Jeremiah 29:7). God was using Babylon to discipline His people.
But being used by God did not give Babylon a free pass. Chapters 50 and 51 of Jeremiah are a long announcement that its own day was coming. Babylon had been proud and merciless. God said He would render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight
(Jeremiah 51:24). To render here means to give back. Near the end of that prophecy comes this name.
Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.
Jeremiah 51:56
A spoiler is a destroyer, someone who strips a city bare. The bow was the great weapon of the day, so broken bows meant an army with no power left.
The scroll and the stone
Jeremiah did something unforgettable with these words. He wrote the whole prophecy against Babylon in a book, which in those days meant a scroll. Then he gave it to Seraiah, a royal official who was traveling to Babylon with King Zedekiah. When you get there, Jeremiah said, read every word aloud. Then tie a stone to the scroll and throw it into the Euphrates River.
And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 51:64
Imagine the scene. In the middle of the greatest city on earth, a scroll sinks out of sight in the river. Nothing about Babylon looked weak that day. Yet in 539 BC, Cyrus of Persia took the city, a conquest recorded on the clay Cyrus Cylinder now kept in the British Museum. Daniel 5 tells of that night, when King Belshazzar was killed. Over the following centuries the great city faded into ruins.
What gemulot and shalam mean
El is the short Hebrew word for God. Gemulot is the plural of gemulah, a word for a deed and what comes back because of it. Strong's dictionary, a standard word list for the King James Bible, gives its meanings as deed, recompence and reward. It comes from the verb gamal, which means to deal fully with someone, either for good or for bad.
That "either" matters. This word is not only about punishment. The word gemulah appears just three times in the Old Testament. One of them is in Isaiah 59:18, about God repaying His enemies. Another is in 2 Samuel 19:36, where an old man named Barzillai, who had helped King David, wonders why the king would give him such a reward
. The same word covers both a penalty and a kindness returned.
Now look at the end of the verse. "Shall surely requite" translates one Hebrew verb said twice, shallem yeshallem. Hebrew repeats a verb like this to make it strong: He will pay, He will surely pay. The verb is shalam, which means to make complete or to pay in full. It belongs to the same word family as shalom, peace. That connection says something deep. Real peace is not just quiet. A world where tyrants and abusers are never called to account would not be whole. God's peace includes setting things right.
King James verses about God who repays
To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Deuteronomy 32:35
Moses sang this long before Jeremiah. Vengeance and repayment belong to God, not to us. He decides when and how.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Isaiah 35:4
Look at who this verse is for: people who are afraid. When God comes to repay the cruel, it means rescue for the people they hurt.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Psalm 103:10
Iniquities are wrongs and sins. The word "rewarded" here comes from gamal, the same root as this name. The God who repays is also the God of mercy, who has not given us what our own wrongs deserve.
Putting down what you cannot fix
Many people carry a wrong that was never made right. Someone lied about you, stole from your family, bullied you or hurt a person you love, and it looks like they got away with it. Holding on to that can eat away at you for years.
This name says nothing is forgotten. God keeps the books, and His accounting is fair. That frees you from having to settle every score yourself. Letting go does not mean pretending it did not matter. It means trusting the Judge to handle something too big for you. It also does not mean you should stay silent about abuse or crime. Telling a parent, a pastor, a teacher or the police is often exactly the right step.
There is good news on the other side, too. You may serve without thanks, care for a sick relative, help at church or give quietly. The God of recompences sees that as well, and He does not forget.
- Name one hurt you keep replaying, and tell God you are handing it to Him.
- Ask a trusted adult for help if someone is harming you right now.
- Do one kind thing this week that no one will notice except God.
The LORD God of recompences is name 35 of the 70 in the book. The next name is one of the oldest pictures of God in the Bible: the Rock. To see how this title fits with others, visit names of God and their meanings or how many names God has.
