Revenge or vengeance must be read through its agent, target and the passage's assessment. Ish-bosheth's killers claim that the Lord has avenged David, but David rejects their action in the ensuing account.
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Full entry for נְקָמָה (H5360) · Open the biblical lexicon
Revenge or vengeance must be read through its agent, target and the passage's assessment. Ish-bosheth's killers claim that the LORD has avenged David, but David rejects their action in the ensuing account.
The BSB source-word alignment has 27 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include vengeance (6), . . . (3), My vengeance (3), of vengeance (3), Your vengeance (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Numbers 31:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (11), Ezekiel (5), Psalms (5), 2 Samuel (2).
Revenge or vengeance must be read through its agent, target and the passage's assessment. Ish-bosheth's killers claim that the Lord has avenged David, but David rejects their action in the ensuing account. Ezekiel condemns the Philistines' hostile vengeance and announces the Lord's judgment against them. Jeremiah reports enemies planning revenge and also petitions to see the Lord's vengeance after entrusting his cause.
Psalm 94 calls on the God of vengeance within a prayer concerning oppression and the killing of vulnerable people. These different speakers do not make every claim of divine agency trustworthy or authorize private retaliation. Read what the text actually approves, rejects or petitions for. A congregation should hear wronged people's appeal and seek justice without turning a prayer into a commission for violence, demanding silence about harm or excusing an aggressor's revenge through a religious claim.
A rejected claim by killers, condemned hostile vengeance, announced judgment, enemies' plans and petitions to God require distinct assessments. The noun does not approve an action without examining its actual agent and context.
They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. Today the Lord has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.”
The killers claim the Lord has avenged David, but David rejects their deed in the following response.
This is what the Lord God says: ‘Because the Philistines acted in vengeance, taking vengeance with malice of soul to destroy Judah with ancient hostility,
The oracle names the Philistines' hostile revenge and enduring hatred as the conduct under rebuke.
I will execute great vengeance against them with furious reproof. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay My vengeance upon them.’”
The Lord announces vengeance against the addressed people within the stated judgment of their conduct.
For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”
Jeremiah reports surrounding enemies hoping to prevail and take revenge against him in their hostile plans.
O Lord of Hosts, who examines the righteous, who sees the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.
Jeremiah petitions to see the Lord's vengeance after committing his cause to the One who examines inward life.
O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth.
The prayer calls on the God of vengeance before asking the Judge to address the proud and oppressed.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Divine prerogative to repay covenant violation; human vengeance poses theological danger when usurping God's exclusive right
Divine prerogative to repay covenant violation; human vengeance poses theological danger when usurping God's exclusive right
avengement, whether the act or the passion BDB: vengeance Usage: avenge, revenge(-ing), vengeance.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
נְקָמָה is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Vengeance vocabulary cannot certify its own speaker. The killers in Second Samuel claim that the Lord has avenged David through their deed, yet David rejects that deed; the severe subsequent punishment remains part of the ancient account rather than a present commission. Ezekiel condemns the Philistines' hostile vengeance and announces the Lord's judgment against them, distinguishing their action from His stated response.
Jeremiah reports enemies seeking revenge, then entrusts his own cause and petitions before God. Psalm 94 appeals to the Judge amid oppression and the killing of vulnerable people. Teach those distinctions openly. A congregation can take reports of harm seriously and pursue responsible justice without declaring an aggressor's claim trustworthy because it sounds religious.
It should not command a sufferer to remain silent, demand reconciliation without safety or turn prayer language into private violence. Romans' instruction about vengeance has its own stated source and must not be presented as this exact Hebrew noun appearing in the quoted verse.
Ps.94.1
The noun's revenge language requires its actual agent and assessment rather than automatic approval. Twenty-seven BSB tokens in twenty-two verses remain distinct from canonical twenty-seven; artifact transliteration is preserved, and related vengeance vocabulary cannot silently replace the selected identifier or tagging.
Romans 12:17-21 forbids personal revenge, entrusts repayment to the Lord and directs feeding a hungry enemy. Its explicit scriptural vengeance quotation comes from Deuteronomy 32, with a different Hebrew noun identifier from H5360. This is a canonical thematic comparison, not a direct H5360 occurrence or a command to ignore danger and suppress responsible justice.