78 Bible Verses about Retribution

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy to thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge his people.

To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

And the LORD said to Moses, Whoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to thee: Behold, my angel shall go before thee: Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.

And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary to me; Then will I also walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you: and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations: And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

If I shall whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful to his land, and to his people.

For the work of a man he shall render to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.

If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and will not he render to every man according to his works?

Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies:

God is jealous, and the LORD avengeth; the LORD avengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness to our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity: just and right is he.

And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him. And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD, With twelve hundred chariots, and sixty thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Cushites.read more.
And he took the fortified cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were assembled at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, Thus saith the LORD, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak. Upon which the princes of Israel, and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

He made a pit, and digged it, and hath fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as are of upright deportment. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.

And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

Whoever diggeth a pit shall fall into it: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

Whoever causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.

Then said Jesus to him, Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword, shall perish by the sword.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall from the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Whoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

And if any mischief shall follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou doest that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast. And if a man shall cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;read more.
Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him. And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death. Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.

And if he shall smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he shall die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he shall smite him by throwing a stone, by which he may die, and he shall die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he shall smite him with a hand-weapon of wood, with which he may die, and he shall die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.read more.
The avenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. But if he shall thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying in wait, that he die. Or in enmity shall smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him. But if he shall thrust him suddenly without enmity, or shall have cast upon him any thing without laying in wait, Or with any stone, by which a man may die, seeing him not, and shall cast it upon him, that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm: Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments: And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he had fled: and he shall abide in it to the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

Or to governors, as to them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well.

Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, That ye resist not evil: but whoever shall strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:read more.
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired by all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

Why should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by avenging the blood of thy servants which is shed.

O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse to them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth to God. Also to thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation.

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality; eternal life:read more.
But to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath: Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; For there is no respect of persons with God.

And the LORD God said to the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children: and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping animal, and the fowls of the air; for I repent that I have made them.

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men were building. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

And thou shalt say to him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me to thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

And the LORD said to Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.

And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle.

And the LORD afflicted the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made.

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them: as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit lewdness, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.read more.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit its iniquity upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

Speak not thou in thy heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

That the land may not vomit you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

Because thou didst not serve the LORD thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things: Therefore shalt thou serve thy enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he hath destroyed thee.

Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, who have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompense to his enemies.

Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thy abominations, therefore I will also diminish thee; neither shall my eye spare, neither will I have any pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword around thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. Thus shall my anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.

Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things from your own countrymen, even as they have from the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten by worms, and died.

But if the LORD shall make a new thing, and the earth shall open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain to them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.

And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.

Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.

But Peter said, Ananias, Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thy own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? thou hast not lied to men, but to God. And Ananias hearing these words, fell down, and expired. And great fear came on all them that heard these things.

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

And Adoni-bezek said, seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their food under my table; as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in slaying his seventy brethren: And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him: and all Israel fled every one to his tent.

And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.

And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one towards another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

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

And Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.

And the king said to him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing of it, to wit, Abner the son of Ner captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.