There is an abundance of stories in the Bible on vengeance and revenge. They range from revenge taken by one man on another, the revenge taken by the clan or courts on an individual, revenge on an individual taken by God, and revenge on an individual by another individual who was appointed by God to do so. Since there are so many that could be covered, this paper will focus mainly on the revenge taken by one individua

In 1 Samuel 15, is another story of vengeance not taken, this time by Saul. Saul was instructed by the Lord to punish the Amalekites and kill all they had, a punishment to be enforced at the Lord's request. Instead, Saul "took King Agag alive" and "spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the cattle and of the fatlings..." for the purposes of sacrifice. Saul is punished for this as is everyone else who disobeys the Lord, and the lesson he has to learn is that obedience outweighs sacrifice. Here the focus is no revenge not taken, also in the category of warfare. So whether the Hebrew root for vengeance translates to revenge or to warfare, it does not matter. What counts in this story is that individuals ought to heed to the Lord's requests.

Joseph is another individual who does not take revenge upon those who mistreated him. Joseph's father and brothers sold him into slavery, yet Joseph took them to Egypt to save them from starvation when he could have killed them out of anger for what they had done to him.

Just as in the story of Samson, in the story of David, there are many ideas within the text that can be withdrawn which may lead toward the proper connotation of the word. The fall and death of Saul was the only way to bring on the succession of David. Throughout first and second Samuels, David is shown to be almost perfect-rejecting retaliation and conveniently not being around when all of the things that happen to Saul occur. For instance, when Saul is killed, David conveniently has an alibi which makes it impossible for him to have been involved. The text being written this way is an effort to absolve David of all that is wrong. Additionally, some scholars have concluded that David did not actually spare Saul twice-these are just two versions of the same story. "In both, Saul is unknowingly defenseless before David, who is urged by his men to kill Saul but refuses because of Saul's status as the Lord's anointed. David then reveals to Saul that he could have killed him, and Saul's expresses remorse for persecuting David and hints or states that David will succeed him as king." But, in this situation it is God who takes vengeance and David who walks away blameless because he did the right thing by not exacting his own revenge.

This text displays the vicious cycle that can result from personal retaliation. "Private vengeance was deeply rooted in the ANE practice... [it led] to cyclical retaliation in the form of blood feuds." Samson did not receive an actual punishment for his actions as many others did after they committed an act of personal revenge. This could have possibly been because of his heroic death, which was just as miraculous as his being born to a barren woman. Here the text seems to draw parallels with each other, creating yet another cycle. This narrative presents the ideas of deception and betrayal (as Samson betrayed the Judeans by acting in his own interests only) of others, and of God (because human revenge was strictly forbidden). Beyond the cycle of revenge, there is a cycle of Samson and his obvious weakness for women. He gets into the situation because of a woman, is then betrayed by another woman (Delilah) and is later condemned by the Philistines to do a woman's work.

In Lamentations, Chapter 3, the individual is crying out because of the pain and anguish that (s)he has experienced at the hand of the Babylonians. The lament begins with a complaint by a person who has obviously experienced some type of bitter suffering, "I am the one who has seen affliction...He has made my flesh and my skin waste away and broken my bones..." The following section which is mostly contemplations for reasons of hope, is connected to the first section by the refrain "therefore I have hope" (similar to "therefore I will hope in him" and "there may yet be hope," also found in the following stanzas). The next section is set apart from the rest because it is more of a lament on

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Approximate Word count = 3066
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)