Retaliation

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

General scriptures concerning

• Exodus 21:23–25 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.
• Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
• Leviticus 24:17–22 And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death. Whoever kills an animal must make restitution — life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other pers…
• Deuteronomy 19:19–21 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you. Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you. You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foo…
• Psalm 10:2 In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise.
• Proverbs 20:22 Do not say, “I will avenge this evil!” Wait on the LORD, and He will save you.
• Proverbs 24:29 Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.”
• Proverbs 26:27 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.
• Isaiah 33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.
• Matthew 5:38–44 You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also; if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well; and if someone forces you to go on…

See Avenger

See Hatred

See Malice

See Revenge

Instances of

The Israelites on the Amalekites

• Deuteronomy 25:17–19 Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt, how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God. When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to p…
• 1 Samuel 15:1–9 Then Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of the LORD. This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them on their way up from Egypt. Now go and attack the…

Gideon on the princes of Succoth

• Judges 8:7 “Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”
• Judges 8:13–16 After this, Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle along the Ascent of Heres. There he captured a young man of Succoth and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven leaders and elders of Succoth. And Gideon went to the men of Succoth and said, “Here are…

The kings of Midian

• Judges 8:18–21 Next, Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one resembling the son of a king.” “They were my brothers,” Gideon replied, “the sons of my mother! As surely as the LORD lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

Penuel

• Judges 8:8 From there he went up to Penuel and asked the same from them, but the men of Penuel gave the same response as the men of Succoth.
• Judges 8:17 He also pulled down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

Joab on Abner

• 2 Samuel 3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.
• 2 Samuel 3:30 (Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.)

David on Michal

• 2 Samuel 6:21–23 But David said to Michal, “I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me over your father and all his house when He appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel. I will celebrate before the LORD, and I will humiliate and humble myself even more than this. Yet I will be honored by the maidservants…

David on Joab

• 1 Kings 2:5–6 Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me— what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.

David on Shimei

• 1 Kings 2:8–9 Keep an eye on Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim who is with you. He called down bitter curses against me on the day I went to Mahanaim, but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD: ‘I will never put you to the sword.’ Now therefore, do not hold him g…

Jews on the Chaldeans

• Esther 9 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s command and edict were to be executed. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but their plan was overturned and the Jews overpowered those who hated them. In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the… (whole chapter)