78 Bible Verses about Retribution

Do not worship them or serve them. I, Jehovah your God, am a God demanding exclusive devotion. (I do not tolerate rivals.) I will not share your affection with any other god. I punish children for their parents' sins to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. I show mercy (loving kindness) to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my commandments.

Dearly beloved, do not avenge yourselves, instead leave room for divine punishment, for it is written: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says Jehovah. (Deuteronomy 32:35)

We know who said: Vengeance is mine; I will repay; and who also said, Jehovah will judge his people. (Deuteronomy 32:35)

Vengeance and retribution belong to me. (Vengeance is mine, I will repay.) Their foot shall slide in time, for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things to come on them come quickly.

Jehovah answered Moses: I will wipe out of my book whoever sins against me. Now, go and lead the people to the place I told you about. My angel will go ahead of you. But on the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.

If this discipline does not help and you still resist, I will resist you. I will punish you seven times for your sins. I will bring war on you to get revenge for my promise you rejected. When you gather in your cities, I will send plagues on you and you will fall under the control of your enemy.

Keep in mind that Jehovah your God is the only true God. He is the faithful God. He keeps his promise and is merciful to thousands of generations of those who love him and obey his commandments. He destroys everyone who hates him. He never takes long to pay back anyone who hates him.

I sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on justice! I will render vengeance on my adversaries. I will repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword will devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the longhaired leaders of the enemy. Rejoice you nations with his people. He will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance on his adversaries, and will atone for his land and his people.

According to their deeds he will repay them. According to their ways he will make it befall them.

You may say: We did not know this, but God knows and judges your motives. He keeps watch on you and knows. He will reward each man according to his deeds.

That is why Jehovah, Jehovah of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, says: How horrible it will be when I take revenge on my opponents! I will avenge myself against my enemies.

Jehovah (YHWH) is a zealous God requiring exclusive devotion (tolerates no rivals). Jehovah takes vengeance (punishment) against his adversaries. He reserves (maintains) wrath (indignation) (displeasure) against his enemies.

Surely you would not do that! Would you slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

I will proclaim the name of Jehovah and ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock! His work is perfect. For all His ways are just. He is a God of faithfulness and without evil. He is just and upright.

Rehoboam established his kingdom and made himself strong. He and all Israel abandoned Jehovah's teachings. King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. This took place in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign. It happened because all Israel was not loyal to Jehovah. Shishak had twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horses, and an army of countless Libyans, Sukkites, and Sudanese from Egypt.read more.
He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. Shemaiah the prophet approached Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak. He said to them: Jehovah says: 'You have forsaken me, so I also have forsaken you to Shishak.' Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said: Jehovah is righteous.

The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Men will say: Truly there is a reward for the righteous. Truly there is a God who judges the earth.

Jehovah asked: Why should I forgive the sins of my people? They have abandoned me and have worshiped gods that are not real. I fed my people until they were full, but they committed adultery and spent their time with prostitutes. They were like well-fed stallions wild with desire, each lusting for his neighbor's wife. Why should I not punish the people of Judah? Says Jehovah, Should I take retribution (vengeance)?

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you! You will not be a priest to me since you have forgotten the Law of your God. Therefore, I will forget your children.

They dig out a pit and fall into the hole that they have made. Their mischief returns upon their own heads. Their violence descends on their own heads.

The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to throw down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct. Their sword will enter their own heart. Their bows will be broken.

They lie in wait for their own blood (murder). They set an ambush for their own lives.

He who digs a pit will fall in it. He who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.

Whoever leads decent people into evil will fall into his own pit. Innocent people will inherit good things.

Jesus told him: Put your sword in its place. Those who take up the sword will perish by the sword.

Do not be deceived. God is not mocked! A man will harvest what he sows. He that sows to his own flesh will harvest corruption of the flesh. But he that sows to the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.

The payment will be for life if she is seriously injured, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

He is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil.

Whoever kills another person must be put to death. Whoever kills an animal must replace it, life for life. Should any of you injure another person, whatever you have done shall be done to you.read more.
If you break a bone, one of your bones must be broken. If you put out an eye, one of your eyes must be put out. Should you knock out a tooth, one of your teeth shall be knocked out. Whatever injury you cause another person must be done to you in return. Whoever kills an animal shall replace it, but whoever kills a human being shall be put to death. This law applies to all of you. It applies to Israelites and to foreigners living among you. I am Jehovah your God.'

If any of you uses an iron weapon to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death. If any of you picks up a stone as a weapon and uses it to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death. And if any of you picks up a piece of wood as a weapon and uses it to kill another person, you are a murderer. Murderers must be put to death.read more.
The relative who can avenge the death must make sure a murderer is put to death. When he catches up with the murderer, he must kill him. If any of you kills someone you hate by shoving him or by deliberately throwing something at him, or if you beat your enemy to death with your bare hands, you must be put to death. You are a murderer. The relative who can avenge the death must kill you when he catches up with you, because you are a murderer. Should you accidentally kill someone who was not your enemy. Maybe you shoved him or threw something at him but did not mean to kill him. Or if you drop a big stone, and someone is killed. However, you did not know the person was there, he was not your enemy, and you were not trying to harm him. Then the community must use these rules in order to decide if you are innocent or if the dead person's relative can avenge the death. If you are innocent, the community must protect you from that relative. They must take you back to the city of refuge you fled to. You must live there until the death of the chief priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do good.

Do not say: I will do to him as he has done to me. I will render to the man according to his work.

You have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, do not resist a wicked person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to that person.

Pay them back for what they have done, for their evil deeds. Pay them back for what their hands have done, and give them recompense.

It is a righteous thing for God to repay with affliction (great suffering and distress) those who afflict you. You who are afflicted rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire. They will render vengeance to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the good news of our Lord Jesus.read more.
They will suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the Lord and from the glory of his might. He will then come to be glorified in his holy ones, and to be marveled at by all those who believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Why should the nations be allowed to say: Where is their God? Let us watch as the nations learn that there is punishment for shedding the blood of your servants.

O Jehovah, God of vengeance, God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O Judge of the earth, Render recompense to the proud.

You destructive people of Babylon, blessed is the one who pays you back with the same treatment you gave us. Blessed is the one who grabs your little children and smashes them against a rock.

You will give them their reward, O Jehovah. Answer the work of their hands. You will cover their hearts with your curse on them. You will go after them in anger and annihilate them from under the heavens of Jehovah.

The sea gave up the dead in it. Death and the grave delivered up the dead in them. Every man was judged according to his works.

God has spoken once. I have heard it said twice: Power belongs to God. Loving-kindness belongs to you, O Jehovah. You reward a person based on what he has done.

Do not wonder about this for the hour is coming when everyone in the grave will hear his voice. They will return. Those who did good will have the resurrection of life. Those who did evil will receive the resurrection of judgment.

Thanks to your stubborn and unrepentant heart, you store up wrath for yourself, in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. He will render to each according to his works. [He offers] everlasting life for those who search for incorruptible glory and honor by enduring in good works.read more.
Those who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will receive wrath and indignation. [There will be] tribulation and distress on every person who works evil, for the Jew first and for the Greek. [There will be] glory, honor and peace to every one who does good works, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. God is not partial! (God does not play favorites!)

So Jehovah God said to the serpent: Because you have done this you are cursed above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity (hostility) (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring (seed) and hers. He will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) you in the head, and you will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) him in the heel. (Romans 16:20) He said to the woman: I will greatly increase your pains in childbirth; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

Jehovah saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. Jehovah was grieved that he had made man on the earth. His heart was grieved with pain. So Jehovah said: I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth. All of them: men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air. I am sorry that I created them.

But Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. Jehovah said: If they become one people speaking the same language, nothing will be impossible for them. They have begun to do this. Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.

Jehovah made burning sulfur and fire rain out of the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Say to Pharaoh: 'Jehovah the God of the Hebrews sent me to tell you, Let my people go to worship me in the wilderness. So far you have not listened.' Jehovah says: 'This is the way you will recognize that I am Jehovah: I will strike the Nile with this staff in my hand. The water will turn into blood.

Jehovah said to Moses: I will send only one more punishment (plague) on the king of Egypt and his people. After that he will let you leave. In fact, he will drive all of you out of here.

At midnight Jehovah killed every firstborn male in Egypt from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who ruled the land to the firstborn son of the prisoner in jail, and also every firstborn animal.

Jehovah killed people because they had Aaron make the calf.

Now these things were examples for us. They teach us not to lust after evil things like they did. Do not be idolaters like some of them. It is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play. Do not commit fornication like some of them committed. Twenty three thousand of them died in one day.read more.
Do not test Jehovah like some of them also did and were destroyed by serpents. Do not grumble like some of them grumbled. Venomous snakes killed them.

The land has become unclean. I will punish it for its sins. The land will vomit out those who live in it.

When Jehovah your God expels these people right before your very eyes, do not say to yourselves: 'Jehovah brought us here to possess this land because we live right (are righteous).' This is not the case. It is because these nations are so wicked that Jehovah is forcing them out of your way.

If you make the land unclean, it will vomit you out as it has vomited out the people who were there before you.

You did not serve Jehovah your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things. You will serve your enemies whom Jehovah will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

See, it stands written before me. I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps both your sins and the sins of your fathers, says Jehovah. This is because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills. I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.

Listen to the uproar from the city. Listen to the sound from the temple. It is the sound of Jehovah paying back his enemies as they deserve.

As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah,' 'because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations I will withdraw, and my eye will have no pity and I will not spare you. One third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine! One third will fall by the sword! One third I will scatter to every wind! I will unsheathe a sword behind them (war will follow them). I will unleash my anger. I will use my fury against you, and I will get revenge. When my fury is unleashed against you, you will know that I, Jehovah, spoke to you with all my zeal.

Run away from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be killed because of Babylon's sin. I am now taking my revenge. I am punishing it as it deserves.

You are responsible for all the righteous blood shed on earth. That includes the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation (those living at that time).

You brothers became imitators of the congregations of God that are in Judea in Christ Jesus. You also suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews. They killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They did not please God and are contrary to all men. They hindered us from speaking to the nations so that they may be saved. The result was that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.

Immediately the angel of God killed him, because he did not give God the glory. He was eaten by worms and died.

But if Jehovah does something totally new, if the ground opens up, swallows them and everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive to their graves; then you will know that these men have treated Jehovah with contempt.

At once Jehovah God became angry with Uzzah. He killed him because of his irreverence. Uzzah died there beside the Ark of the Covenant.

In every generation some of your descendants will die a violent death because you have disobeyed me and have taken Uriah's wife.

This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says concerning the shepherds who are tending my people: You have scattered my flock and driven them away. You have not attended to them. I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, says Jehovah.

Peter said: Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the money from the land sale? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your power? Why did you conceive this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Hearing these words Ananias fell down and died. Great fear came over all those who heard these things.

For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning (not judging rightly) the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

And Adoni-bezek said: Seventy kings with their big toes cut off have gathered food scrapes under my table. God has repaid me for what I have done. So they brought him to Jerusalem where he died.

Thus God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness. Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.

They took Absalom's body and threw it into a deep pit in the forest. Then they covered it with a huge pile of stones. All the Israelites fled to their own hometowns.

You are to kill your master the king of the house of Ahab. I am punishing Jezebel for murdering my prophets and my other servants.

Also the men left the natural use of the woman and burned in their lust, one toward another; men with men working that which is obscene. They receive full recompense due for their error.

But evil men and impostors will become worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Joshua said: Why have you troubled us? Jehovah will trouble you this day. All Israel stoned them with stones. After they stoned them they burned them with fire.

The king said: Do as he said. Kill him there and bury him in the earth. This will remove the guilt of his senseless murders from my father's family and me. Jehovah will punish Joab for those murders he committed without my father David's knowledge. Joab killed two innocent men who were better men than he: Abner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa, commander of the army of Judah.