Top 7 Bible Verses About Revenge

What are the top 7 Bible verses about revenge?  Which ones might you include?

Leave Vengeance for God

Romans 12:19 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

This is an imperative command from Paul and since this is from the Word of God and is inspired, this command is from God Himself.  When we try to get revenge, we show that we don’t trust God to ensure that justice will finally be done.  By taking revenge ourselves, we try to take the seat of God’s throne and make ourselves the ruler.  Trust God, vengeance is His to repay.  Leave this up to God because God commands us to not avenge ourselves.

Jealousy Can Lead to Revenge

Proverbs 6:34 “For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.”

There is nothing like a jealous man or woman and when jealousy comes to fruition, it produces a sinful state of revenge and that leads to nothing good.  This proverb does not say that revenge or jealousy is a good thing but in fact, just the opposite. We know that we are to leave vengeance to God and when jealously is not repented of, it leads to sinful actions like taking revenge into one’s own hands.

Retribution for Revenge

Ezekiel 25:15-16 “Thus says the Lord God: Because the Philistines acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of soul to destroy in never-ending enmity, therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the rest of the seacoast.”

Here is proof positive that God avenges those of His own.  God poured out His fury on the Philistines and the Cherethites and because of their evil against Israel, God said “I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them” (Ezk 25:17).

God’s Vindication of His Own

Isaiah 54:17 “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”

What a marvelous verse showing that God will vindicate or avenge those servants of His whom others have fashioned weapons against.  God will refute (or prove wrong) every tongue that falsely accuses us or judges us in an unrighteous manner.  This will occur at the Judgment where every man and woman will stand to give an account for everything that they’ve ever said…particularly against those of us who are His (Rom 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10).

You Shall Not Take Vengeance

Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

The idea that we are not to take revenge against others is not just a New Testament command but was written in the Old Testament Law.  God sees our taking vengeance or getting revenge as the same thing as bearing a grudge so if we hold a grudge against someone we are not loving our neighbor as ourselves.  This too is an imperative command and not just part of the Mosaic Law but a part of the higher, moral law of God to leave vengeance to God.

The Righteous Shall be Avenged

Psalm 58:10 “The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.”

The day that the righteous children of God who will be avenged by God Himself will be a day of rejoicing but not because God is paying them back but because God’s justice is always perfect  and” the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).  I acknowledge that this sounds a bit harsh but if you read the context of Psalm 58 you can see that this chapter is about the despicably wicked who are unmerciful against God’s own and who have dealt violently with the ones who God has placed His love upon.

God’s Vengeance against Disbelievers

Second Thessalonians 1:6-8 “Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

 If you think it’s not a big deal to not believe in Christ, these verses show that God will someday inflict “vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” because God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).  Jesus said “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”  These verses again remind us to leave vengeance to God for He will repay and in particular, He will “repay with affliction those who afflict” us.  Leaving it to God is trusting in God to do what is right in the end.   It may not come today but will surely come in time.

Conclusion

If you have never trusted in Christ and repented of your sins, God’s wrath is still abiding on you (John 3:36b) and that will be a terrifying state to die in for as the prophet Daniel wrote “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12: 2).  Why not trust in Christ and receive eternal life today if you have not done so already and be part of the eternal kingdom of God where you can abide with Him forever in an unending joy (Rev 21)?

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon