Word study

Vengeance

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “vengeance”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “vengeance” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נְקָמָה neqâmâhvengeancetranslated this way 21 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5360Noun  ·  Translated: vengeance 21, avenged 1, behalf 1, malice 1

    Numbers 31:3 So Moses told the people, “Arm some of your men for war, that they may go against the Midianites and execute the LORD’s vengeance on them.

    2 Samuel 4:8 They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. Today the LORD has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.”

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • נָקָם nâqâmvengeancetranslated this way 13 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H5359Noun  ·  Translated: vengeance 13, vengeful blow 1, avenged 1

    Leviticus 26:25 And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

    Deuteronomy 32:35 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.”

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • נָקַם nâqamavenge, take vengeancetranslated this way 9 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H5358Verb  ·  Translated: avenge 8, take vengeance 4, avenged 2, taken vengeance 2

    Numbers 31:2 “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

    Joshua 10:13 So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance upon its enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? “So the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.”

    Full study and all 31 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἐκδίκησις ekdíkēsisa defense, vengeance, full punishmenttranslated this way 4 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G1557Noun  ·  Translated: vengeance 4, justice 2, avenged 1, vindication 1

    Luke 21:22 For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

    Romans 12:19 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.”

    Full study and all 9 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

What the Bible says about vengeance: passages by topic →

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.