Psalms 99:8

O Lord our God, you answered them. They found you to be a forgiving God, but also one who punished their sinful deeds. ¹ 

O LORD our God, you answered them; you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds.

O LORD our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds.

O LORD our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God, but you punished them when they went wrong.

And then GOD, our God, answered them (But you were never soft on their sins).

You gave them an answer, O Lord our God; you took away their sin, though you gave them punishment for their wrongdoing.

O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

You answered them, O LORD our God; You were to them God–Who–Forgives, Though You took vengeance on their deeds.

O Lord our God, you answered them. They found you to be a forgiving God, but also one who punished their sinful deeds. ¹ 

¹ tn Heb “a God of lifting up [i.e., forgiveness] you were to them, and an avenger concerning their deeds.” The present translation reflects the traditional interpretation, which understands the last line as qualifying the preceding one. God forgave Moses and Aaron, but he also disciplined them when they sinned (cf. NIV, NRSV). Another option is to take “their deeds” as referring to harmful deeds directed against Moses and Aaron. In this case the verse may be translated, “and one who avenged attacks against them.” Still another option is to emend the participial form נֹקֵם (noqem, “an avenger”) to נֹקָם (noqam), a rare Qal participial form of נָקַה (naqah, “purify”) with a suffixed pronoun. In this case one could translate, “and one who purified them from their [sinful] deeds” (cf. NEB “and held them innocent”).