"Vengeance is Mine; I will repay": (Anna Karenina's Epigraph) (Patreon)

The famous opening epigraph. Biblical, yet unassigned. This is a quote from Deuteronomy 32:35, The Song of Moses:

Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.

I recommend the 1611 King James version of the Bible, but use whatever is close to you and relish the final four chapters of Deuteronomy when you have a moment. You might also want to read Paul’s letters to the Romans (12:17) in which he implores us not to ‘repay evil for evil’. God will punish and take revenge. We must be merciful. 

How does that fit into your reading of Anna Karenina so far? Now we’re asking the big questions…

Levin touches upon some other, often misquoted Bible verses. Here is Luke 7:47:

Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

According to Levin, ‘Christ would never have said those words, if he’d known how they would be misused.’ As for the prayer he’s ‘always loved’, which he mentions at the end of chapter ten, Levin is referring to Psalms 25:7:

Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.

What do you think seeing these two Bible verses juxtaposed together? 

Is Levin being a tad hypocritical? 

Is that character complexity?