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VengeanceAid to Bible Understanding
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long-suffering toward them?”—Luke 18:2-8, Kingdom Interlinear Translation.
Furthermore, in the apostle John’s vision recorded in the book of Revelation, John saw the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work they used to have, crying out: “Until when, Sovereign Lord holy and true, are you refraining from judging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?” The answer they received shows that there is a definite time for the vengeance to be carried out, namely, when “the number [would be] filled also of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed as they also had been.”—Rev. 6:9-11.
The Scriptures reveal that this execution of vengeance begins on Babylon the Great, then proceeds to come upon the “wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies.”—Rev. 19:1, 2, 19-21.
APPOINTED EXECUTIONERS OF VENGEANCE
The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s Chief Executioner of vengeance. The apostle Paul comforts Christians with the words: “It is righteous on God’s part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for you, but, to you who suffer tribulation, relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength.”—2 Thess. 1:6-9.
Christ’s apostles and other overseers in the Christian congregation
The apostles were appointed under Jesus Christ to care for the Christian congregation and to protect it from uncleanness and loss of Jehovah’s favor. In harmony with his God-given authority, the apostle Paul wrote to the congregation at Corinth, which was experiencing divisions and troubles from “false apostles”: “We are holding ourselves in readiness to inflict punishment for [literally, “to avenge”] every disobedience.”—2 Cor. 10:6, Kingdom Interlinear Translation; 11:13; 13:10.
Other older men in the congregation, though not having special apostolic powers, were appointed as judges to throw wicked persons outside, where they faced destruction from God’s execution of vengeance upon the wicked. (1 Cor. 5:1-5, 13) The Scriptures show that Jehovah first judges his own people, then those not his own. (1 Pet. 4:17) Therefore the Christian who takes up unrighteousness, as, for example, fornication, is in danger, “because Jehovah is one who exacts punishment [literally, is the “avenger”] for all these things.”—1 Thess. 4:3-6, Kingdom Interlinear Translation.
Those appointed to care for the congregation were authorized to carry out “vengeance” to the extent that they could take steps to bring about justice and to reestablish the congregation in righteousness before God, by correcting the wrong that had been done. This the governing members of the Corinthian congregation did, after Paul corrected them, so that Paul wrote in his second letter to them: “What a great earnestness it produced in you, . . . yes, righting of the wrong [literally, “avenging”]!” These men showed godly repentance after Paul’s first letter and cleared out the wicked man therein referred to, doing all they could to right matters before Jehovah. (2 Cor. 7:8-12, Kingdom Interlinear Translation) However, those men were not authorized to carry out on the wrongdoer the full penalty demanded by justice—full vengeance in putting him to death, as had been the prerogative of the judges under the Mosaic law. (Lev. 20:10; Heb. 10:28) They merely expelled such bad persons from the congregation, ‘handing them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.’ (1 Cor. 5:5) If not repentant, such would eventually receive full justice for their misdeeds in everlasting death.—Heb. 10:29, 30.
Rulers
Governmental rulers, whose duty it is to see that justice is carried out, may be the ones to execute vengeance upon evildoers, including any Christians who break the laws of the land that are in harmony with what is right and consistent with the authority allowed those rulers by God. In such case, these rulers are indirectly executing God’s vengeance, as the apostle Paul writes: “For those ruling are an object of fear, not to the good deed, but to the bad. . . . it is God’s minister, an avenger to express wrath upon the one practicing what is bad.”—Rom. 13:3, 4; 1 Pet. 2:13, 14; compare Genesis 9:6.
IMPERFECT MAN’S TENDENCY TO SEEK VENGEANCE
It is a tendency of fallen, imperfect men to seek vengeance upon those who do them injustice, or upon persons whom they hate. The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife is in danger of retributive vengeance from the husband, as the Proverbs say: “For the rage of an able-bodied man is jealousy, and he will not show compassion in the day of vengeance. He will have no consideration for any sort of ransom, neither will he show willingness, no matter how large you make the present.” (Prov. 6:32-35) Nonetheless, vengeance taken by a person upon his own initiative is usually carried out in uncontrolled anger, and is to no good purpose, but brings God’s anger against the avenging individual.—Jas. 1:19, 20.
Enemies of God and of his servants
Those who hate God have ‘breathed forcibly’ (as is the basic meaning of the Hebrew word) against God’s servants, seeking to wreak vengeance upon them. This is not a true bringing about of justice, but a desire or action due to their hostility toward what is right and righteous, and to get rid of those righteous ones whose words and course of action convict them of wickedness. (Ps. 8:2; 44:15, 16) In some instances God’s servants have been killed with the perverted idea that justice was being carried out. (John 16:2) In executing this claimed or supposed “vindictive justice,” they have not pleased God, however, but, rather, have stored up vengeance for themselves. Jehovah at times used the nations, such as Babylon, to bring his own vengeance on his people Israel when they broke their covenant with him. (Lev. 26:25) But those nations, on their part, acted because of hatred and malice, expressing their own vengefulness, and for this Jehovah, in turn, took vengeance upon them.—Lam. 3:60; Ezek. 25:12-17; see AVENGER OF BLOOD; CITIES OF REFUGE.
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VenomAid to Bible Understanding
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VENOM
(venʹom).
Poisonous fluid secreted by certain snakes and some other creatures. (Num. 21:4-9; Deut. 8:15; Acts 28:3-6) One Hebrew word for the venom of reptiles is hhe·mahʹ (Deut. 32:24), also used to denote “rage,” “fury” and the like. (Deut. 29:28; Ezek. 19:12) It is from a root meaning “to be hot” and may allude to the inflammation or burning sensation associated with the bite of a venomous snake. Another Hebrew word (roʼsh or rohsh) is applied to the “poison” or “venom” of cobras, “poisoned” water, grapes of “poison” and a poisonous plant.—Deut. 32:32, 33; Job 20:16; Jer. 8:14; 9:15; 23:15; Lam. 3:19; see POISONOUS PLANT.
Though some animal poisons may seem to be only for protection or killing, of interest is this statement by H. Munro Fox in “Animal Poisoners”: “In some cases we know that poisons play a role in the functioning of the body of the animal which manufactures them. In many instances this may be the real raison dʼêtre [reason for existence] of the venoms, quite apart from any protective value. The poisonous
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