Vengeance

Holman Bible Dictionary

vengeance nqm ekdikeo nqm

Human revenge against an enemy or enemies is demonstrated in a broad range of circumstances in the Old Testament documents ( Genesis 4:23-24;  Jeremiah 20:10 ). Samson's reaction to his enemies ( Judges 15:7 ) is so described. Vengeance might be punishment directed toward another who has committed adultery with one's wife ( Proverbs 6:32-34 ) or toward a whole ethnic group such as the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 18:25 ). On occasion, the enemies of the people of God are described as acting vengefully ( Ezekiel 25:12 ,Ezekiel 25:12, 25:15 ,Ezekiel 25:15, 25:17 ). In the context of loving one's neighbor, human revenge toward fellow Hebrews was forbidden ( Leviticus 19:17-18; compare  Deuteronomy 32:35 ), but nqm may be used of legitimate punishment for a wrong (  Exodus 21:20; compare  Exodus 21:23-25;  Leviticus 24:19;  Deuteronomy 19:21 ).

As an activity of God on behalf of His people, nqm is sometimes best understood as retribution (  Judges 11:36 ). David was often the recipient of such favor ( 2 Samuel 4:8;  2 Samuel 22:48;  Psalm 18:47 ). The motif occurs in this sense in the prayers of Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 11:20;  Jeremiah 15:15;  Jeremiah 20:12 ) and of the psalmist ( Psalm 58:10;  Psalm 79:10;  Psalm 94:1 ). Note that deliverance is involved in several of these instances. The wrath of God was exhibited toward Babylon (  Jeremiah 51:6 ,Jeremiah 51:6, 51:11 ,Jeremiah 51:11, 51:36;  Isaiah 47:3;  Ezekiel 24:7-9 ). In the song of Moses, such retribution is attributed to God alone ( Deuteronomy 32:35 ,Deuteronomy 32:35, 32:41 ,Deuteronomy 32:41, 32:43 ). Yet, the wrath of God might be extended toward the people of Israel because of their sin ( Leviticus 26:25 ).

Nqm has a sense of eschatological deliverance. This can be combined with an expression of God's wrath against Israel's enemies (  Isaiah 34:8 ). The parallel Isaianic phrases “day of vengeance” and “year of my redemption” have the same import ( Isaiah 63:4; compare  Isaiah 61:1-3 ).

In the New Testament, the motif of “vengeance” ( ekdikeo and cognates) occurs on relatively few occasions. Of the evangelists, Luke alone uses both the verb and the noun. In Jesus' parable of the unjust judge, a widow's persistent request for vindication from her enemy is grudgingly granted. Luke displayed the parable as a worst-case model of God's vindication (“deliverance”) of His people (  Luke 18:1-8 ). In another teaching of Jesus, “vengeance” has an eschatological dimension which is reflective of  Isaiah 63:4 (  Luke 21:22 ). A further Lukan example is found in Stephen's speech this time retribution ( Acts 7:24 ).

Paul forbade human vengeance much in the way of  Deuteronomy 32:35 (compare   Leviticus 19:18 ), asserting that the Lord is the Avenger of wrong ( Romans 12:19;  1 Thessalonians 4:6-7 ). In the Corinthian correspondence, Paul used both noun and verb in the sense of “punishment.” The usage seems designed to bring about repentance ( 2 Corinthians 7:10-11;  2 Corinthians 10:5-6 ). On one occasion, Paul wrote of the ruler of a state as a servant of God, “a revenger to execute wrath upon him who doeth evil” ( Romans 13:4 ). Once, he wrote of the eschatological wrath (judgment) of God ( 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8; compare  Isaiah 66:15;  Psalm 79:6 ).

The author of Hebrews also cited the Deuteronomic prohibition against human vengeance ( Hebrews 10:30;  Deuteronomy 32:35; compare  Romans 12:19;  Leviticus 19:18 ), and the author of 1Peter referred to human governors as persons sent by God to punish evildoers ( 1 Peter 2:14; compare  Romans 13:4 ).

In Hebraic fashion, the author of Revelation viewed God as the Avenger who vindicates His people against their enemies ( Revelation 6:10;  Revelation 19:2 ). Both of these usages have eschatological overtones (compare  Isaiah 63:1-6 ). See Avenger; Punishment; Wrath.

Donald E. Cook

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

An injured party's desire for retribution or repayment from those who harmed him or to demonstrate his innocence against false accusations. Vengeance demonstrates God's righteousness in compensating the wrong with right. He takes vengeance against the murderers of the helpless ( Psalm 94:1-6 ) and enemies of his people ( Joel 3:19-21 ). The idea of vengeance is incorporated into Israel's moral code, making them as his people accountable for their infractions. Vengeance most frequently translates the Hebrew naqam and is used of God ( Isaiah 1:24 ) and human beings ( Exodus 20:20-21 ) in meting out legally deserved punishments. Personal vengeance from a designated family member was required to avenge an unlawful death ( Numbers 35:19-21 ). In cases of uncertainty over unintentional death, the perpetrator could find protection from the victim's surviving relatives in the cities of refuge ( Numbers 35:22-29 ). As Israel developed from a loose confederation into a kingdom, carrying out vengeance became a state function ( Deuteronomy 24:16 ). The lex talonis, requiring "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth" ( Exodus 21:23-25 ), is widely understood as prohibiting disproportionate punishment. Still basic to this principle is that wrongs had to be avenged. Without the perpetrator's execution the land remained defiled ( Deuteronomy 19:11-13 ). Vengeance reflects a sense of justice in restoring the right. It was also a national function, as Israel retaliated against its neighbors. Samson kills three thousand Philistines for blinding him ( Judges 14-16 ). God is the avenger of last resort in destroying the Egyptians as Israel's enemies ( Exodus 15:1-18;  Deuteronomy 32:35-36 ). Vengeance is approached differently in the New Testament. Government remains as the executor of divine vengeance against law breakers ( 1 Peter 2:14 ), but personal vengeance is prohibited. Jesus requires that an ethic of helping one's enemies replace retaliation ( Matthew 5:38-48 ). Similarly Paul forbids returning evil for evil and seeking personal vengeance ( Romans 12:17-21 ). This apparent dissimilarity lead Marcion in the second century, Schleiermacher in the eighteenth century, and some scholars since then to conclude that the Old Testament religion was inferior to that of the New Testament. Such a view characterizing the Old Testament as absolute demand for vengeance overlooks Joseph's forgiving his brothers ( Genesis 45:1-4 ) and David's sparing the lives of Saul ( 1 Samuel 26 ) and later Saul's family ( 2 Samuel 9:9-13 ). God does not completely destroy Israel but forgives them, preserving a remnant in spite of their transgressions ( Micah 7:18-20 ). Divine vengeance in the Old Testament is not to be understood as God's desire for self-gratification in exacting punishment, but as an expression of displeasure over all unrighteousness to restore the original balance ( Joel 3:19-21 ). Vengeance anticipated redemption. The relative seeking revenge was called the ga'al haddam [   Numbers 35:19 ), the avenger or redeemer of blood. This provides a necessary background for understanding Christ's death as satisfying God's vengeance to provide redemption. Divine retributive righteousness seeking revenge against the sinner becomes in Christ redemptive. Forgiveness rather than vengeance is the basis for Christian morality. Vengeance incapable of being placated is reserved for Christ's and the church's enemies who unbelievingly reject its resolution in Christ's death.

David P. Scaer

See also Accursed; Devoted Devote; Judgment; Justice; Providence Of God; Punishment; Worship; Wrath Of God

Bibliography . H. McKeating, Exp T, 74:239-45; G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

The word ‘vengeance’ (ἐκδίκησις), with its corresponding substantive ‘avenger’ (ἔκδικος,  1 Thessalonians 4:6,  Romans 13:4), is an essentially NT word and never carries with it the suggestion of arbitrary or vindictive reprisals: it is always a just retribution, and a retribution inflicted by God Himself or His instruments ( 1 Peter 2:14). If the idea of wrath is associated with the use of the word, as in  Romans 3:5;  Romans 13:4, such ‘wrath’ (ὀργή) is the eternal righteousness or justice of God acting in harmony with His revealed will. In both  Romans 12:19 and  Hebrews 10:30 the words’ Vengeance is mine; I will repay’ are quoted somewhat loosely from  Deuteronomy 32:35 (ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐκδικήσεως ἀνταποδώσω). The verb (ἐκδικέω) occurs in the parable of the Unjust Judge ( Luke 18:3;  Luke 18:7-8) in the sense of affording protection from a wrong-doer and so vindicating the right of the injured person. It is then applied by our Lord to the Divine vindication of the ‘elect,’ the phrase used being ποιεῖν τὴν ἐκδίκησιν τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν, which suggests the protection of persevering saints as well as the just penalty inflicted on their aggressors.

In the ethics of Christianity the Golden Rule solves the problem of private and personal revenge. Revenge at the bidding of momentary passion or as the gratification of a selfish emotion is resolutely condemned by the teaching of Christ, and forgiveness takes the place of the old savage law of retaliation (see  Matthew 5:38-48). Of the assertion ‘Vengeance is mine,’ W. H. Moberly (in Foundations , London, 1912, p. 280) writes: ‘This limits, but at the same time consecrates, the notion of retribution. The disinterested infliction of retribution is sometimes a moral necessity’; and he further quotes T. H. Green ( Principles of Political Obligation , § 183): ‘Indignation against wrong done to another has nothing in common with a desire to revenge a wrong done to oneself. It borrows the language of private revenge just as the love of God borrows the language of sensuous affection.’

Punishment, if it is to carry any moral weight, must involve the vindication of law, and consequently the new ethic of Christianity which controlled the conduct of the Apostolic Church is based on love, which rules out of revenge the element of private and personal malevolence (see some cogent remarks by J. S. Mackenzie, Manual of Ethics 4, London, 1900, p. 404 f.). The repetition of the quotation from  Deuteronomy 32:35, in the form in which it comes to us in two such representative Christian writings as the Epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews, shows clearly that the Christian consciousness had grasped the idea of punishment as in effect a Divine prerogative. The private individual has not to assume judicial functions which properly belong to a recognized legal tribunal or ‘powers’ regarded as Divinely ordained ( Romans 13:1-6).

On the relation of the subject to war, E. Will-more ( J. Hibbert Journal xiii. [1915] 340) describes how the doubts of a friend-a Territorial soldier-as to the moral Tightness of war (based on ‘Vengeance is mine,’ etc.) were resolved by reading of the atrocities of Belgium and the nature of German atheism. ‘Vengeance belongs to God,’ he wrote; ‘then we are God’s instruments.’ War as a method of giving expression to the law of international righteousness is admittedly repugnant to the Christian conscience; but until the method is superseded as the result of a consensus gentium , a Christian nation is not absolved from the duty of vindicating either by offensive or by defensive warfare the eternal principles of right and justice.

R. Martin Pope.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Ἐκδίκησις (Strong'S #1557 — Noun Feminine — ekdikesis — ek-dik'-ay-sis )

lit., "(that which proceeds) out of justice," not, as often with human "vengeance," out of a sense of injury or merely out of a feeling of indignation. The word is most frequently used of Divine "vengeance," e.g.,  Romans 12:19;  Hebrews 10:30 . For a complete list see Avenge , B, No. 2. The judgements of God are holy and right ( Revelation 16:7 ), and free from any element of self-gratification or vindictiveness.

 Acts 28:4  Jude 1:7Justice.  Romans 3:5AngerWrath.

King James Dictionary

VENGEANCE, n. venj'ance. L. vindico.

The infliction of pain on another, in return for an injury or offense. Such infliction, when it proceeds from malice or more resentment, and is not necessary for the purposes of justice, is revenge, and a most heinous crime. When such infliction proceeds from a mere love of justice, and the necessity of punishing offenders for the support of the laws, it is vengeance, and is warrantable and just. In this case, vengeance is a just retribution, recompense or punishment. In this latter sense the word is used in Scripture, and frequently applied to the punishments inflicted by God on sinners.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.  Deuteronomy 32 .

The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries.  Nahum 1 .

With a vengeance, in familiar language, signifies with great violence or vehemence as, to strike one with a vengeance.

Formerly, what a vengeance, was a phrase used for what emphatical.

But what a vengeance makes thee fly?

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

In  Deuteronomy 32:35   Romans 12:19   Hebrews 10:30   Jude 1:7 , means retributive justice- a prerogative of God with which those interfere who seek to avenge themselves. So also in  Acts 28:4; though many suppose that the islanders meant the goddess of justice, Dike, whom the Greeks and Romans regarded as a daughter of Jupiter, and feared as an independent, just, and unappeasable deity.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) Punishment inflicted in return for an injury or an offense; retribution; - often, in a bad sense, passionate or unrestrained revenge.

(2): ( n.) Harm; mischief.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Gr. Δίκη ), the heathen goddess of retribution (Lat. Justitia ) , described as the daughter of Zeus (Hesiod, Op. 266) and Themis ( Theog. 902) and the coadjutor ( Πάρεδρος ) of the former (Sophoc. ( Ed. Col. 1384; Arrian, Alex. 4 :9; see Montfaucon, Antiq. I, 2, 8). The punishment of murderers is particularly ascribed to her; and, therefore, besides being the goddess of punishment in a general sense, she is often to be considered the same as Nemesis or Vengeance (Eurip. Med. 1390; Dion Halic. 11:37; see Mitscherlich, Ad Horace, Od. 3, 2, 32; Palaiset, Observ. p. 347). The word occurs in  Acts 28:4, but its significance is there disguised in the A.V., which renders it "justice." (See Revenge).