Merriam Webster defines recompense as an equivalent or a return for something done, suffered, or given. The verb means to give something to by way of compensation (as for a service rendered or damage incurred), to pay for, to return in kind. The basic idea is that there is a correspondence between what is received and what is given. If you buy something, the recompense to the seller is the payment you make. If you take vengeance for injury, you are dealing with your enemy as he dealt with you. This basic idea of correspondence is neatly expressed in Obadiah 1:15 (NKJV): As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head. And Exodus 22:1–15 is especially about making restitution for theft. The Hebrew word salam appears about twelve times in it, though the NKJV renders the word in various ways: restore, make restitution, pay and make good.
The Bible uses this idea of recompense in a variety of contexts: man to man, God to man, and even man to God. It also uses more than one word. Hebrew has two main words: gamal and salam. Greek also has two: apodidomi and misthos, which each appear in some contexts with a prefix: antapodidomi and antimisthia. In three verses in Hebrews (2:2, 10:35, 11:26) the two Greek words together form a compound word translated by the KJV as “recompense of reward.”
The English translations of these words vary widely: reward, recompense, deal bountifully, pay (also in the sense of paying wages), repay, render, give, serve, bestow, make good, restore, make amends, requite, perform vows (a special use of salam in the Old Testament), and a few variations.
In this article I am interested only in the uses of these words in God’s dealings with men. They fall into two categories: recompense for works both good and evil and recompense for suffering.
We are pretty familiar with the idea of recompense for works. Proverbs 12:14 says that the recompense of a man’s hands will be rendered to him. For He repays man according to his work, And makes man to find a reward according to his way (Job 34:11). We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).
Therefore, this recompense is first for evil works. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him (Isa. 3:11). It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you (2 Thes. 1:6).
This reward varies according to the degree of wickedness which men commit. It will be more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon and Sodom in the day of judgment than for Chorazin and Bethsaida (Matt. 11:21–24).
One of the many gifts of God’s grace to his people is that he does not deal with (recompense) them according to their sins, nor punish them according to them iniquities (Ps. 103:10). This does not mean that he will not send severe chastisements if we are disobedient, but the suffering of Christ has saved us from getting what we deserve. For Christ’s sake he will restrain his anger, and his chastening will be for our correction rather than our destruction.
God also rewards according to good works. In Psalm 18:20 David celebrates the goodness of the Lord to him: The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. And in the New Testament, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first (Matt. 19:29–30). Jesus immediately confirmed this variety in the rewards of the righteous by the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1–16).Matthew 10:41–42: He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. Luke 14:13–14: But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. If anyone’s work endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, though as through fire (1 Cor. 3:14–15). Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me (or with which the Lord will recompense me) on that day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing (2 Tim. 4:8)
This reward, though God metes it out according to the measure of good that each does, is not a merited or earned reward but given according to grace (Rom. 4:4). God owes no man any good. Who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him? (Rom. 11:35). That seems to be an allusion to Job 41:11 (ESV): Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? All have sinned and come short of his glory. All deserve only wrath. When you have done all your duty, you are still an unprofitable servant (Lk. 17:10). God will indeed recompense or reward you for your good works, but he does not owe it. He gives it out of free and sovereign grace.
We are probably not as familiar with the idea that God recompenses us also according to the measure of our suffering. But 2 Corinthians 4:17–18, though it does not make it explicit, suggests it in a very powerful way. Our light affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Other passages in both testaments are more explicit. God’s recompense to the enemies who trouble us is part of our hope and comfort (Jer. 51:5–6). In Isaiah 57 the Lord says that he will not always be angry with his people, but he will restore (repay, reward) comforts to him and to his mourners (v. 18), and Isaiah 60:20 promises an end to days of mourning. Though the translations all use the word “end” there, the Hebrew could as well be translated “recompense.” Jesus tells us that we should rejoice when men persecute us because our reward in heaven will be great (Matt. 5:12, Lk 6:22–23). God takes account of the measure of suffering each of us endures, and rewards (we might almost say compensates) each accordingly.
There’s one more point to make here. Three times in the Psalms we find the phrase “deal bountifully:” He has dealt bountifully with me (Ps. 13:6, 116:7, 142:7). Each time the Hebrew word is “gamal,” in many other places translated as reward or recompense. Each of these psalms talks about suffering. Bountiful dealings is a wonderful concept, surely striking the mark in this respect, that we do not deserve his goodness. But the Hebrew also conveys the idea of recompense. The bountiful dealings of the Lord are also a recompense for what we suffer now, especially what we suffer for his name’s sake. So in this valley of the shadow of death, each of us may lift up his eyes to the day of redemption and the assurance that one day we will be able to say, “It was all worth it. The Lord, in his great and undeserved goodness, has fully recompensed me for all that I suffered on earth.”
Then we render to him, in our creaturely and wholly inadequate way, according to the benefits he has bestowed on us. We will render (or repay) the calves of our lips (Hos 14:2, KJV) and render (repay or recompense) thanks to God (1 Thes. 3:9), for all the good and all the joy he has given to us.