REVENGE.See Avenger of Blood, Kin [Next of].
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Whether in Old or New Testaments, the Bible teaches that people are not to take personal revenge for what they consider to be wrong done to them. They should forgive the offender and allow God to deal with the person as he sees fit (Lev_19:18; Deu_32:35; Rom_12:19; Rev_5:9-11; see WRATH). In the law of Moses, as in the teachings of Jesus, Gods people are taught not even to bear a grudge against their enemies. Far from returning evil for evil, they must positively do good to those who do evil to them (Exo_23:4-5; Lev_19:17-18; Mat_5:44-48; Mat_18:35; see FORGIVENESS).
Although individuals have no God-given right to pay back wrongdoers, civil governments have. They are to execute judgments fairly, and not give a light punishment for a serious offence or a heavy punishment for a minor offence. The punishment must be in proportion to the crime an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a bruise for a bruise, a scratch for a scratch (Exo_21:22-24; Rom_13:4; see GOVERNMENT; CITY OF REFUGE; JUDGE).
When Jesus rebuked people for living according to this rule, he was not criticizing the law of Moses. Jesus supported the law of Moses (Mat_5:17), but he opposed people who used the principle of civil justice (an eye for an eye, etc.) as an excuse for personal revenge. The spirit that rules in the hearts of Gods people is not the same as that which rules in the code of legal justice (Mat_5:38-42).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
Revenge
(נְקָמָה, ἐκδίκησις) means the return of injury for injury, or the infliction of pain on another in consequence of an injury received from him further than the just ends of reparation or punishment require. Revenge differs materially from resentment, which rises in the mind immediately on being injured; but revenge is a cool and deliberate wickedness, and is often executed years after the offence is given. By some it is considered as a perversion of anger. Anger, it is said, is a passion given to man for wise and proper purposes, but revenge is the corruption of anger, is unnatural, and therefore ought to be suppressed. It is observable that the proper object of anger is vice; but the object, in general, of revenge, is man. It transfers the hatred due to the vice to the man, to whom it is not due. It is forbidden by the Scriptures, and is unbecoming the character and spirit of a peaceful follower of Jesus Christ. SEE ANGER.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.