"Make Your Own" Study Guide:

REVENGE

Below is a list of verses that in some way relate to the topic of "revenge/vengeance." You will have to decide what to do with these verses. In other words, you have to make your own "study guide."

You will discover that the verses provided contain a wide variety of concepts, such as:

• Verses that contain the words "revenge" or "vengeance"
  
  
• Verses that contain similar concepts (but which use different words), or actions that are the result of "revenge/vengeance"
  
  
• Verses that tell us what to do about such attitudes
  
  
• Verses that tell us about good types of conduct

Feel free to add other verses you may find, or remove any in the list that are not applicable to the type of outline (or study, or presentation, or whatever) you are creating. Note that most of the verses in the list are from the Old Testament. (You may wish to add some New Testament references.)

The verses are grouped into a few general categories, but you are welcome to disregard the categories and make your own.

And one more thing you can rejoice about: The verses selected below are based strictly on the English words. No O.T. Hebrew or N.T. Greek words to worry about!

First, a few comments ...

Many people consider this concept to be entirely "negative" and "bad." But the Bible mentions specific instances in which this is not so. The context (the issue of who is exercising vengeance and why they are doing so) determines the rightness or wrongness of the action.

All but one passage listed below are from the Old Testament. Many of the verses that make reference to human vengeance have something to do with the nation Israel and its enemies. The contexts would need to be considered. In many cases, there are things we can learn from these passages, but they are not intended as a justification for us to personally "take matters into our own hands." (There are many things that God requires civil governments to do - such as maintaining justice - that individuals are not told to do. Even in cases of vengeance by individuals, the people were often in a specific leadership office, or there was a specific reason why it was legitimate. Context needs examined in each instance.)

1. GOD'S VENGEANCE

• Deuteronomy 32:41
  
• Deuteronomy 32:43
  
• Isaiah 34:8
  
• Isaiah 35:4
  
• Isaiah 47:3
  
• Isaiah 59:17
  
• Isaiah 61:2
  
• Isaiah 62:11/Isaiah 63:4
  
• Jeremiah 46:10
  
• Jeremiah 50:15
  
• Jeremiah 50:28
  
• Jeremiah 51:6
  
• Ezekiel 16:38
  
• Ezekiel 24:8
  
• Ezekiel 25:12-14
  
• Ezekiel 25:15-17
  
• Micah 5:15
  
• Nahum 1:2

2. PEOPLE COMMANDED TO DO IT OR DOING IT

• Numbers 31:2-3
  
• Judges 16:28
  
• Psalm 149:6-9
  
• Jeremiah 51:11

3. DESIRING VENGEANCE

• Jeremiah 11:20
  
• Jeremiah 20:12
  
• Lamentations 3:59-60

4. MISC. VERSES MENTIONING VENGEANCE BY PEOPLE

• 1 Samuel 18:25
  
• Proverbs 6:34

5. BAD TYPES OF VENGEANCE / REVENGE

• Leviticus 19:18
  
• Psalm 44:16
  
• Jeremiah 20:10
  
• Ezekiel 25:12-14
  
• Ezekiel 25:15-17
  
• Romans 12:19

Dennis Hinks ©1998, 2004