Retribution

Recompense for evil. In Scripture this is the prerogative of God and of the authorities ordained by God, and never of individuals.

The principle of retribution

Exodus 20:5–6; Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30 See also Deuteronomy 32:35; Exodus 32:33–34; Leviticus 26:23–25; Deuteronomy 7:9–10, Deuteronomy 32:41–43; Job 34:11; Proverbs 24:12; Isaiah 1:24; Nahum 1:2

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”

For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

Divine retribution is just

Genesis 18:25 See also Deuteronomy 32:3–4; 2 Chronicles 12:1–6; Psalm 58:10–11; Jeremiah 5:7–9, Jeremiah 5:26–29; Hosea 4:6

Far be it from You to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

Retribution is often built into the nature of wrongdoing

Psalm 7:15–16 See also Psalm 37:14–15; Proverbs 1:18, Proverbs 26:27, Proverbs 28:10; Ecclesiastes 10:8; Matthew 26:52; Galatians 6:7–8

He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making. His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

Retribution is placed in the hands of governments

Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:23–25 This “lex talionis” (law of exacting like for like) was not for private retribution. It insisted that justice be fair and not out of proportion to the crime; Romans 13:4 See also Leviticus 24:17–22; Numbers 35:16–25; 1 Peter 2:14

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life — eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.

For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

Private retribution is forbidden

Proverbs 24:29 See also Matthew 5:38–39; Romans 12:19

Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.”

Prayer for retribution

Psalm 28:4 Christians can agree with these prayers, hating all that opposes the Lord and goodness, and gladly anticipating the ultimate vindication of God's glory. Christians leave judgment in God's hands, but nonetheless grieve over the world's pain and over the death of every unrepentant sinner; 2 Thessalonians 1:6–10 See also Psalm 79:10, Psalm 94:1–2, Psalm 137:8–9; Lamentations 3:64–66

Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve.

After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might, on the day He comes to be glorified in His saints and regarded with wonder by all who have believed, including you who have believed our testimony.

The final retribution

Revelation 20:13 See also Psalm 62:11–12; John 5:28–29; Romans 2:5–11

The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds.

Examples of direct divine retribution on people

In the fall

Genesis 3:14, Genesis 3:17 See also Genesis 3:15–16, Genesis 3:18–19

So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.

And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

In the flood

Genesis 6:5–7

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them.”

And the LORD sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.

On the heathen nations

Leviticus 18:25; Deuteronomy 9:4

On the rebellious nation of Israel

Leviticus 18:28; Deuteronomy 28:47–48

On idolatrous Judah

Isaiah 65:6–7, Isaiah 66:6; Ezekiel 5:11–13

On Babylon

Jeremiah 51:6, Jeremiah 51:24, Jeremiah 51:56

Upon all the nations

Obadiah 1:15–16

For the Day of the LORD is near for all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return upon your own head. For as you drank on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp it down; they will be as if they had never existed.

On Jerusalem

Matthew 23:35–36 This judgment came on Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Upon persecutors and unbelievers

1 Thessalonians 2:14–16

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men, hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.

Examples of divine retribution on individuals

Acts 12:23 See also Numbers 16:30; 2 Samuel 6:7, 2 Samuel 12:10; Jeremiah 23:2; Acts 5:3–5, Acts 5:9; 1 Corinthians 11:29–30

Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Examples of divine retribution through human beings

Judges 1:7, Judges 9:56–57; 2 Samuel 18:17; 2 Kings 9:7, 2 Kings 9:24, 2 Kings 9:30–33

Natural retribution

Romans 1:27; 2 Timothy 3:13

Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Examples of retribution by the state

National retribution

Joshua 10:13–14; Judges 11:36; Esther 9:5 The special case of God's dealings with the nation of Israel and her enemies is not a basis on which to argue for a concept of a war, just or otherwise. A just war has to be in defence of the nation or of the defenceless, and involve a minimum of suffering.

Warnings of future retribution

Acts 17:31 See also Matthew 25:31–32

For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”