Verse explainer
Paul isn't telling you to do nothing about injustice — he's telling you to stop trying to do God's job, because God actually does it.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
BSBDo not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written: "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord."
The plain meaning
Romans 12:19 sits inside a long passage on how believers are to live together and toward enemies (vv. 14–21). Paul's command isn't passive resignation to evil — it's a deliberate transfer of the case from your hands to God's. "Give place unto wrath" is the hinge: as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown note, the wrath here is not your own anger needing to cool, but God's avenging wrath — you are to leave room for it to operate. The quotation from Deuteronomy 32:35 clinches it: vengeance isn't yours to take because it was never yours to begin with; it belongs to the only Judge who sees every fact, weighs every motive, and never overreaches. Verse 20 follows immediately with the call to feed your enemy and give him water — active, costly love — and v. 21 closes the frame: "Overcome evil with good." The chapter's whole logic is that private revenge short-circuits both God's justice and your own witness.
The common misreading
What the commentators say
Clarke reads "give place to wrath" as an instruction to leave the matter in the hands of the civil magistrate and ultimately of God, the righteous judge. By taking private revenge, Clarke argues, you remove your cause from both lawful authority and divine jurisdiction at once — a double loss. He also notes Paul's tender address ("dearly beloved") is deliberate: reminding readers they are loved by God is meant to soften them toward love of others, even enemies.
Gill carefully limits what the verse forbids: it targets private revenge by private persons for private injuries, not church discipline, not civil magistracy, not a believer's repentance over sin. He grounds the prohibition in the sole ownership of vengeance by God — whose holiness, justice, power, and faithfulness are reasons enough to trust him to repay rather than rushing in yourself. Vengeance belongs to God because it is his law that was broken and against him that sin is ultimately committed.
JFB argues that "wrath" in "give place unto wrath" refers to God's avenging wrath, not the believer's own anger cooling down. The injunction is to await and make room for divine retribution rather than preempting it. They link this to Paul's broader frame in the chapter: the posture being described is one of deliberate, trusting restraint — not passive weakness but an active yielding of the case to the court that cannot be corrupted.
The word behind it
"Vengeance" or "full justice done." From ek (out) + dikē (justice, right) — the complete carrying-out of justice to its proper end. The word appears in the Deuteronomy 32:35 quotation Paul invokes. It is not mere retaliation but the final, satisfying execution of what is right. Thayer notes it carries the sense of vindication as well as punishment. Using this word, Paul signals that what the wronged person craves is not denied — it is reserved for the one who can do it perfectly.
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