17 Bible Verses about Vengeance

You have heard the saying, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, you are not to resist an injury: whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well; whoever wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well;read more.
whoever forces you to go one mile, go two miles with him; give to the man who begs from you, and turn not away from him who wants to borrow. You have heard the saying, 'You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven: he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love only those who love you, what reward do you get for that? do not the very taxgatherers do as much? and if you only salute your friends, what is special about that? do not the very pagans do as much? You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; all who draw the sword shall die by the sword. What! do you think I cannot appeal to my Father to furnish me at this moment with over twelve legions of angels? Only, how could the scriptures be fulfilled then ??the scriptures that say this must be so?"

Also, he told them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there till you leave the place. And if any place will not receive you and the people will not listen to you, shake off the very dust under your feet when you leave, as a warning to them."

I tell you, my hearers, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you: bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If a man strikes you on the one cheek, offer him the other as well: if anyone takes your coat, do not deny him your shirt as well;read more.
give to anyone who asks you, and do not ask your goods back from anyone who has taken them. As you would like men to do to you, so do to them. If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Why, even sinful men love those who love them. If you help only those who help you, what merit is that to you? Why, even sinful men do that. If you only lend to those from whom you hope to get something, what credit is that to you? Even sinful men lend to one another, so as to get a fair return. No, you must love your enemies and help them, you must lend to them without expecting any return; then you will have a rich reward, you will be sons of the Most High for he is kind even to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.

And why do you not yourselves settle what is right? Thus, when you go before the magistrate with your opponent, do your utmost to get quit of him on the way there, in case he hales you before the judge; then the judge will hand you over to the jailer and the jailer will throw you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out till you pay the last farthing of your debt."

It was about that time that king Herod laid hands of violence on some members of the church. James the brother of John he slew with the sword, and when he saw this pleased the Jews, he went on to seize Peter. (This was during the days of unleavened bread.)read more.
After arresting him he put him in prison, handing him over to a guard of sixteen soldiers, with the intention of producing him to the People after the passover. So Peter was closely guarded in prison, while earnest prayer for him was offered to God by the church. The very night before Herod meant to have him produced, Peter lay asleep between two soldiers; he was fastened by two chains, and sentries in front of the door guarded the prison. But an angel of the Lord flashed on him, and a light shone in the cell; striking Peter on the side he woke him, saying, "Quick, get up!" The fetters dropped from his hands, and the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." He did so. Then said the angel, "Put on your coat and follow me." And he followed him out, not realizing that what the angel did was real, but imagining that he saw a vision. When they had passed the first guard and the second they came to the iron gate leading into the city, which opened to them of its own accord; they passed out, and after they had gone through one street, the angel immediately left him. Then Peter came to his senses and said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were anticipating." When he grasped the situation, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was surnamed Mark, where a number had met for prayer.

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone; aim to be above reproach in the eyes of all; be at peace with all men, if possible, so far as that depends on you. Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,read more.
if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame. Do not let evil get the better of you; get the better of evil by doing good.

For it seems to me that God means us apostles to come in at the very end, like the doomed gladiators in the arena! We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men! We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools'; you in Christ are sensible. We are weak, you are strong; you are honoured, we are in disrepute. To this very hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and knocked about, we are waifs,read more.
we work hard for our living; when reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we put up with it; when defamed, we try to conciliate. To this hour we are treated as the scum of the earth, the very refuse of the world!

When any of you has a grievance against his neighbour, do you dare to go to law in a sinful pagan court, instead of laying the case before the saints? Do you not know the saints are to manage the world? If the world is to come under your jurisdiction, are you incompetent to adjudicate upon trifles? Do you not know we are to manage angels, let alone mundane issues?read more.
And yet, when you have mundane issues to settle, you refer them to the judgment of men who from the point of view of the church are of no account! I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could decide a dispute between members of the brotherhood, instead of one brother going to law with another ??and before unbelievers too! Even to have law-suits with one another is in itself evidence of defeat. Why not rather let yourselves be wronged? Why not rather let yourselves be defrauded? But instead of that you inflict wrong and practise frauds ??and that upon members of the brotherhood!

Brothers, do not be children in the sphere of intelligence; in evil be mere infants, but be mature in your intelligence.

Be angry but do not sin; never let the sun set upon your exasperation,

so as to be blameless and innocent, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverse generation where you shine like stars in a dark world;

and repay you who are troubled (as well as us) with rest and relief, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven together with the angels of his power in flaming fire, to inflict punishment on those who ignore God, even on those who refuse obedience to the gospel of our Lord Jesus, men who will pay the penalty of being destroyed eternally from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

Anyone who has rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy, on the evidence of two or of three witnesses. How much heavier, do you suppose, will be the punishment assigned to him who has spurned the Son of God, who has profaned the covenant-blood with which he was sanctified, who has insulted the Spirit of grace? We know who said, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital: and again, The Lord will pass sentence on his people.read more.
It is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Be sure of that, my beloved brothers. Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to talk, slow to be angry ??20 for human anger does not promote divine righteousness;

And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain for adhering to God's word and to the testimony which they bore; and they cried aloud, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long wilt thou refrain from charging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on earth?" But they were each given a white robe, and told to remain quiet for a little longer, until their number was completed by their fellow-servants and their brothers who were to be killed like themselves.