It is written before me... — The thought is that of the great register, the book of God’s remembrance, in which men’s deeds, good and evil, are ever being recorded. (Comp. Jeremiah 17:1; Psalms 56:8; Daniel 12:1; Malachi 3:16.)
But will recompense... — Literally, without recompensing, or, except I recompense. Men took the long-suffering of God as if it indicated forgetfulness (Romans 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). They are told that He will at last requite the impenitent “into their very bosom,” their inmost self, for all the evil they have done.