37 Bible Verses about Revenge, And Retaliation

Do not give punishment for wrongs done to you, dear brothers, but give way to the wrath of God; for it is said in the holy Writings, Punishment is mine, I will give reward, says the Lord.

And the Lord said, Truly, if Cain is put to death, seven lives will be taken for his. And the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one might put him to death.

Do not make attempts to get equal with one who has done you wrong, or keep hard feelings against the children of your people, but have love for your neighbour as for yourself: I am the Lord.

Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near, sudden will be their fate.

Do not say, I will give punishment for evil: go on waiting for the Lord, and he will be your saviour.

For example, if a man goes into the woods with his neighbour for the purpose of cutting down trees, and when he takes his axe to give a blow to the tree, the head of the axe comes off, and falling on to his neighbour gives him a wound causing his death; then the man may go in flight to one of these towns and be safe: For if not, he who has the right of punishment may go running after the taker of life in the heat of his wrath, and overtake him because the way is long, and give him a death-blow; though it is not right for him to be put to death because he was not moved by hate. And so I am ordering you to see that three towns are marked out for this purpose.

But have no hate for an Edomite, because he is your brother, or for an Egyptian, for you were living in his land.

Say not, I will do to him as he has done to me; I will give the man the reward of his work.

And be working for the peace of the land to which I have had you taken away prisoners, and make prayer to the Lord for it: for in its peace you will have peace.

But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.

And anyone who takes another's life is certainly to be put to death. And anyone wounding a beast and causing its death, will have to make payment for it: a life for a life. And if a man does damage to his neighbour, as he has done, so let it be done to him;read more.
Wound for wound, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever damage he has done, so let it be done to him. He who puts a beast to death will have to make payment for it; he who puts a man to death will himself be put to death.

And the judges will have the question looked into with care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a false statement against his brother, Then do to him what it was his purpose to do to his brother: and so put away the evil from among you. And the rest of the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and never again do such evil among you.read more.
Have no pity; let life be given for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

You have knowledge that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say to you, Do not make use of force against an evil man; but to him who gives you a blow on the right side of your face let the left be turned. And if any man goes to law with you and takes away your coat, do not keep back your robe from him.read more.
And whoever makes you go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who comes with a request, and keep not your property from him who would for a time make use of it. You have knowledge that it was said, Have love for your neighbour, and hate for him who is against you: But I say to you, Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you; So that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; for his sun gives light to the evil and to the good, and he sends rain on the upright man and on the sinner.

But I say to you who give ear to me, Have love for those who are against you, do good to those who have hate for you, Give blessing to those who give you curses, say prayers for those who are cruel to you. If a man gives you a blow on one side of your face, then let the other side be turned to him; from him who takes away your coat, do not keep back your robe.read more.
Give to everyone who comes with a request, and if a man takes away your property, make no attempt to get it back again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you have love for those who have love for you, what credit is it to you? for even sinners have love for those who have love for them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is it to you? for even sinners do the same. And if you let those have the use of your money, from whom you are hoping to get it back, what credit is it to you? even sinners do so to sinners, hoping to get back as much as they gave. But be loving to those who are against you and do them good, and give them your money, not giving up hope, and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High: for he is kind to evil men, and to those who have hard hearts. Be full of pity, even as your Father is full of pity.

Do not give evil for evil to any man. Let all your business be well ordered in the eyes of all men.

Let no one give evil for evil; but ever go after what is good, for one another and for all.

Not giving back evil for evil, or curse for curse, but in place of cursing, blessing; because this is the purpose of God for you that you may have a heritage of blessing.

Love is never tired of waiting; love is kind; love has no envy; love has no high opinion of itself, love has no pride; Love's ways are ever fair, it takes no thought for itself; it is not quickly made angry, it takes no account of evil;

Now a short time after, at the time of the grain-cutting, Samson, taking with him a young goat, went to see his wife; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the bride's room. But her father would not let him go in. And her father said, It seemed to me that you had only hate for her; so I gave her to your friend: but is not her younger sister fairer than she? so please take her in place of the other. Then Samson said to them, This time I will give payment in full to the Philistines, for I am going to do them great evil.read more.
So Samson went and got three hundred foxes and some sticks of fire-wood; and he put the foxes tail to tail with a stick between every two tails; Then firing the sticks, he let the foxes loose among the uncut grain of the Philistines, and all the corded stems as well as the living grain and the vine-gardens and the olives went up in flames. Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his friend. So the Philistines came up and had her and her father's house burned. And Samson said to them, If you go on like this, truly I will take my full payment from you; and that will be the end of it. And he made an attack on them, driving them in uncontrolled flight, and causing great destruction; then he went away to his safe place in the crack of the rock at Etam.

As far as it is possible for you be at peace with all men.

And most of all be warm in your love for one another; because in love there is forgiveness for sins without number:

But when they are cruel to you in one town, go in flight to another: for truly, I say to you, You will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes.

And they got up and took him out of the town to the edge of the mountain on which their town was, so that they might send him down to his death. But he came through them and went on his way.

More than this, it is not to your credit to have causes at law with one another at all. Why not put up with wrong? why not undergo loss?

But give thought to the days after you had seen the light, when you went through a great war of troubles; In part, in being attacked by angry words and cruel acts, before the eyes of everyone, and in part, in being united with those who were attacked in this way. For you had pity on those who were in prison, and had joy in the loss of your property, in the knowledge that you still had a better property and one which you would keep for ever.

And when they had put leather bands round him, Paul said to the captain who was present, Is it the law for you to give blows to a man who is a Roman and has not been judged?

How is it, that if any one of you has a cause at law against another, he takes it before a Gentile judge and not before the saints? Is it not certain that the saints will be the judges of the world? if then the world will be judged by you, are you unable to give a decision about the smallest things? Is it not certain that we are to be the judges of angels? how much more then of the things of this life?read more.
If then there are questions to be judged in connection with the things of this life, why do you put them in the hands of those who have no position in the church? I say this to put you to shame. Is there not among you one wise man who may be able to give a decision between his brothers? But a brother who has a cause at law against another takes it before Gentile judges.

And Jesus said, Father, let them have forgiveness, for they have no knowledge of what they are doing. And they made division of his clothing among them by the decision of chance.

And Stephen, while he was being stoned, made prayer to God, saying, Lord Jesus, take my spirit. And going down on his knees, he said in a loud voice, Lord, do not make them responsible for this sin. And when he had said this, he went to his rest.

If your hater is in need of food, give him bread; and if he is in need of drink, give him water: For so you will put coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will give you your reward.

And will not God do right in the cause of his saints, whose cries come day and night to his ears, though he is long in doing it? I say to you that he will quickly do right in their cause. But when the Son of man comes, will there be any faith on earth?

Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for his people.

May the Lord be judge between me and you, and may the Lord give me my rights against you, but my hand will never be lifted up against you.

You are to see that the family of Ahab your master is cut off, so that I may take from Jezebel payment for the blood of my servants the prophets, and for the blood of all the servants of the Lord.

It is God who sends punishment on my haters, and puts peoples under my rule.

And they gave a great cry, saying, How long will it be, O Ruler, holy and true, before you take your place as judge and give punishment for our blood to those on the earth?

For true and upright are his decisions; for by him has the evil woman been judged, who made the earth unclean with the sins of her body; and he has given her punishment for the blood of his servants.