17 Bible Verses about Vengeance

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist the one who injures you, but if anyone slaps you on one cheek, turn him the other, too; and if anyone wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat, too.read more.
And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. If anyone, whoever he may be, keeps on begging you, give to him; if anyone wants to borrow from you, do not turn him away. "You have heard that it was said, 'You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, practice loving your enemies and praying for your persecutors, to prove that you are sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on bad as well as good people, and makes the rain come down on doers of right and of wrong alike. For if you practice loving only those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax-collectors practice that? And if you say 'Good morning' to your brothers only, what more than others are you doing? So you, my followers, ought to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is."

Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back where it belongs, for all who wield the sword will die by the sword. Do you suppose that I am unable to appeal to my Father and have Him furnish me on the spot one hundred thousand angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, for they say this is the way it must be?"

And He continued to say to them, "Whenever you put up at a house, stay there until you leave that place. And if any place refuses to welcome you or to listen to you, when you leave there shake off the very dust from the soles of your feet as a warning to them."

But I say to you who listen now to me, practice loving your enemies, practice doing good to those who hate you, continue to bless those who curse you, and continue to pray for those who abuse you. To the man who strikes you on one cheek, offer him the other too; and from the man who takes away your coat, do not keep back your shirt either,read more.
Practice giving to everyone who asks of you, and stop demanding back your goods from him who takes them away. Yes, you must practice dealing with others as you would like them to deal with you. Now if you practice loving only those who love you, what credit do you get for that? Why, even notorious sinners practice loving those who love them. And if you practice doing good only to those who do good to you, what credit do you get for that? Even notorious sinners practice the same. And if you ever lend to people expecting to get it back, what credit do you get for that? Even notorious sinners practice lending to one another, expecting to get it back in full. But you must practice loving your enemies, doing good to them, and lending to them, despairing of nothing; so that your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Continue to be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Why do you not of yourselves decide what is right? For instance, when you are on the way to court with your opponent, take the utmost pains on the way to get entirely rid of him, so that he may not rush you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the sheriff, and the sheriff put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out of it until you have paid the last penny!"

About that time Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, in order to do them violence. He had James the brother of John murdered with a sword, and when he saw that this was agreeable to the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too -- it was at the time of the feast of Unleavened Bread.read more.
He had him seized and put into prison, and turned him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, planning after the Passover to bring him out again to the people. So Peter was being kept in prison, but earnest prayer to God for him was persistently made by the church. Now just as Herod was going to bring him out, that is, the very night before, Peter was fastened with two chains and was sleeping between two soldiers, and the guards were at the door guarding the prison. And suddenly an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in his cell, and by striking Peter on the side the angel woke him, and said, "Get up quickly!" At once the chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, "Tighten your belt and put on your shoes? He did so. Then the angel said to him, "Put on your coat and follow me!" So he kept following him out, but he was not conscious that what was being done by the angel was real; he thought he was dreaming it. They passed the first guard, then the second, and at last came to the iron gate which led into the city. The gate of itself opened to them, and they passed out and proceeded one block when all at once the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I really know that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from the power of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting to do to me." When he became conscious of his situation, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, were a large number of people had met and were praying.

Stop returning evil for evil to anyone. Always see to it that your affairs are right in the sight of everybody. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with everybody. Stop taking revenge on one another, beloved, but leave a place for God's anger, for the Scripture says, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back, says the Lord."read more.
Do the opposite. If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for if you act in this way, you will heap burning coals upon his head! Stop being conquered by evil, but keep on conquering evil with good.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on exhibition at the disgraced end of the procession, as they do with men who are doomed to die in the arena. For we have become a spectacle to the universe, to angels as well as men. For Christ's sake we are held as fools, while you through union with Christ are men of wisdom. We are weak; you are strong. You are held in honor; we in dishonor. To this very hour we have gone hungry, thirsty, poorly clad; we have been roughly knocked around; we have had no home.read more.
We have worked hard with our own hands for a living. When abused by people, we bless them. When persecuted, we patiently bear it. When we are slandered by them, we try to conciliate them. To this very hour we have been made the filth of the world, the scum of the universe!

When one of you has a grievance against his neighbor, does he dare to go to law before a heathen court, instead of laying the case before God's people? Do you not know that God's people are to judge the world? And if the world is to be judged before you, are you unfit to try such petty cases? Do you not know that we Christians are to sit in judgment on angels, to say nothing of the ordinary cases of life?read more.
So if you have the ordinary cases of life for settlement, do you set up as judges the very men in the church who have no standing? I ask this to make you blush with shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a grievance of one brother against another, but one brother has to go to law with another, and that before unbelieving judges? To say no more, it is a mark of moral failure among you to have lawsuits at all with one another. Why not rather suffer being wronged? Why not suffer being robbed? On the contrary, you practice wronging and robbing others, and that your brothers.

Brothers, stop being children in intelligence, but as to evil keep on being babies; and yet as to intelligence be men of maturity.

If you do get angry, you must stop sinning in your anger. Do not ever let the sun go down on your anger;

so that you may prove to be blameless and spotless, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverted age, in which you shine as light-bearers in the world as you continue

indeed, it is right for God to repay with crushing sorrows those who cause you these crushing sorrows, and to give rest to you who are being crushed with sorrows, along with us, at the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, with His mighty angels in a flame of fire, who will take vengeance on those who do not know God, that is, those who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus.read more.
These will receive the punishment of eternal destruction as exiles from the presence of the Lord and His glorious might,

Anyone who breaks the law of Moses pays the death penalty without any show of pity, on the evidence of two or three witnesses only. How much severer punishment do you suppose that one deserves who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and counts as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and has insulted the Spirit that grants God's unmerited favor? For we know who it was that said, "Vengeance belongs to me, I will pay back!" and again, "The Lord will be His people's judge."read more.
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the ever living God!

You must understand this, my dearly loved brothers. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry; for a man's anger does not produce the uprightness that God requires.

When He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for being faithful to God's message and for the testimony they bore to it. Then in a loud voice they cried out, "Holy and true Master, how long will you refrain from charging and avenging our blood upon the inhabitants of the earth?" Then a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told to keep quiet a little while longer, until the number of their fellow-slaves and brothers, who were killed as they had been, was complete.