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Divine retribution issupernaturalpunishment of a person, a group of people, or everyone by adeity in response to some action. Manycultures have a story about how a deity exacted punishment upon previous inhabitants of their land, causing their doom.
An example of divine retribution is the story found in many cultures about a greatflood destroying all of humanity, as described in theEpic of Gilgamesh, theHinduVedas, or theBook of Genesis (6:9–8:22), leaving one principal 'chosen' survivor. In the first example, the survivor isUtnapishtim, in the Hindu Vedas, it isManu, and in the last example, it isNoah. References in theNew Testament and theQuran to a man named Nuh (Noah) who was commanded byGod to build anark also suggest that one man and his followers were saved in agreat flood.
Other examples inHebrew religious literature include the dispersion of the builders of theTower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9), the destruction ofSodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20–21, 19:23–28) (Quran 7:80–84),[3] and theTen Plagues visited upon theancient Egyptians for persecuting thechildren of Israel (Exodus, Chapters 7–12).
InGreek mythology, the goddessHera often became enraged when her husband,Zeus, would impregnate mortal women, and would exact divine retribution on the children born of such affairs. In some versions of the myth,Medusa was turned into her monstrous form as divine retribution for her vanity; in others it was a punishment for being raped byPoseidon.
The Bible refers to divine retribution as, in most cases, being delayed or "treasured up" to a future time.[4] Sight of God's supernatural works and retribution would militate against faith in God's Word.[5]William Lane Craig says, in Paul's view, God's properties, his eternal power and deity, are clearly revealed in creation, so that people who fail to believe in an eternal, powerfulcreator of the world are without excuse. Indeed, Paul says that they actually do know that God exists, but they suppress this truth because of their unrighteousness.[6]
Some religions or philosophical positions have no concept of divine retribution, nor posit a God being capable of or willing to express such human sentiments as jealousy, vengeance, or wrath. For example, inDeism andPandeism, the creator does not intervene in our Universe at all, either for good or for ill, and therefore exhibits no such behavior. InPantheism (as reflected in Pandeism as well), Godis the Universe and encompasses everything within it, and so has no need for retribution, as all things against which retribution might be taken are simply within God. This view is reflected in some pantheistic or pandeistic forms ofHinduism, as well.
The concept of divine retribution is resolutely denied inBuddhism.Gautama Buddha did not endorse belief in acreator deity,[7][8] refused to express any views on creation[9] and stated that questions on the origin of the world are worthless.[10][11] The non-adherence[12] to the notion of anomnipotent creator deity or aprime mover is seen by many as a key distinction between Buddhism and other religions, though precise beliefs vary widely from sect to sect and "Buddhism" should not be taken as a single, holistic religious concept.
Buddhists do accept the existence of beings in higher realms (seeBuddhist cosmology), known asdevas, but they, like humans, are said to be suffering insamsara,[13] and are not necessarily wiser than us. The Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods,[14] and superior to them.[15] Despite this, there are believed to be enlightened devas.[16] But since there may also be unenlightened devas, there also may be godlike beings who engage in retributive acts, but if they do so, then they do so out of their own ignorance of a greater truth.
Despite thisnontheism, Buddhism nevertheless fully accepts the theory ofkarma, which posits punishment-like effects, such as rebirths inrealms of torment, as an invariable consequence of wrongful actions. Unlike in most Abrahamic monotheistic religions, these effects are not eternal, though they can last for a very long time. Even theistic religions do not necessarily see such effects as "punishment" imposed by a higher authority, rather than natural consequences of wrongful action.
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"The wrath of God", an anthropomorphic expression for the attitude which some believe God has towards sin,[17] is mentioned many times in theBible.
Divine retribution is often portrayed in theTanak orOld Testament.
The New Testament associates the wrath of God particularly with imagery ofthe Last Day, described allegorically inRomans 2:5 as the "day of wrath". The wrath of God is mentioned in at least twenty verses of theNew Testament. Examples are:
Eusebius suggests that the final illness and death ofHerod the Great was an example of divine punishment for theslaughter of the innocents after thebirth of Jesus.Matthew's gospel mentions Herod's death in passing.[20]Josephus gives a more vivid portrayal of his condition and demise.[21]
Heinrich Meyer observes in his consideration of John 3:36 that the wrath of God "remains" on anyone who rejects belief in the Son, meaning that the rejection of faith is not the trigger for God's wrath, it is there already. Their refusal to believe amounts to a refusal to allow the wrath of God to be lifted from them.[22]
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Since the1812 Caracas earthquake occurred on Maundy Thursday while theVenezuelan War of Independence was raging, it was explained by royalist authorities as divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown. Thearchbishop of Caracas, Narciso Coll y Prat, referred to the event as "the terrifying but well-deserved earthquake" which "confirms in our days the prophecies revealed by God to men about the ancient impious and proud cities: Babylon, Jerusalem and the Tower of Babel".[23] This prompted the widely quoted answer ofSimón Bolívar: "If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature and make it obey".[24]
While some Orthodox Jews believed that the Holocaust was divine retribution for sins, this argument has many critics.[25] In contrast, many Germans at the time believed that thebombing of Germany was divine retribution for theNovember pogrom,[26] although seeing the bombings as divine retribution became less popular after the war.[27]
The1953 Waco tornado outbreak was regarded by some people in the localAfrican-American community as divine retribution for thelynching of Jesse Washington over thirty years prior.[28]
Various Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders claimed thatHurricane Katrina was God's punishment on America, New Orleans or the world for any of a variety of alleged sins, includingabortion,sexual immorality (including the gay pride eventSouthern Decadence), the policies of theAmerican Empire, failure to supportIsrael, and failure of black people to study theTorah.[29][30][31]
The2007 UK floods were claimed byGraham Dow to be God's punishment against homosexuals.[32]
TelevangelistPat Robertson stirred up controversy after claiming that the2010 Haiti earthquake may have been God's belated punishment on Haitians for allegedly having made a "pact with the Devil" to overthrow the French during theHaitian Revolution.[33]Yehuda Levin, anOrthodox Jewishrabbi, linked the earthquake togays in the military via an allegedTalmudic teaching that homosexuality causes earthquakes.[34] Levin posted a video ontoYouTube the same day as2011 Virginia earthquake in which he said, "The Talmud states, "You have shaken your male memberin a place where it doesn’t belong. I too, will shake the Earth". He said that homosexuals shouldn't take it personally: "We don’t hate homosexuals. I feel bad for homosexuals. It’s a revolt against God and literally, there’s hell to pay".[34]
Chaplain John McTernan said thatHurricane Isaac, like Hurricane Katrina, was God's punishment on homosexuals.[32] Buster Wilson of theAmerican Family Association concurred that statement.[34]
McTernan also said thatHurricane Sandy may have been God's punishment against homosexuals. In addition,WorldNetDaily columnist William Koenig, along with McTernan himself, suggested that American support for atwo-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to the hurricane.[34]
Malaysian politicianAhmad Zahid Hamidi said the2018 Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami was "God's (Allah) rage against homosexuals in Indonesia because they were allowed to living in Indonesia".[35]
Orthodox rabbiShmuel Eliyahu said the brutal2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's tribunal on Turkey and Syria since they were considered anti-Jewish like formerNazi Germany because their support forPalestine".[a][36]
Iraqi Shia clericMuqtada al-Sadr said the brutal 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's (Allah) rebuke against Turkey because weak response against the holy book (Quran) burning by right wing extremist groups in Sweden".[37]
ISIS officials said the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's (Allah) rage against Turkey for renounced Sharia laws, replaced it with unbeliever (Kuffar) laws and enforced it, adopted unbeliever lifestyles, declared war against ISIS and allied with the army of unbelievers (NATO)" in their propaganda narrative.[38]
After the brutal2025 California wildfires, some[who?] Muslims viewed the wildfires as "God's (Allah) rage againstJoe Biden administration's support of theIsrael Defense Forces which committed war crimes against civilians during theGaza war while someAmerican Christians (mostlyTrump supporters) viewed it as punishment from God for the moral corruption and blasphemy of some Hollywood A-tier stars and city residents — also suggested that the fires were punishment from God for the city's support forDemocratic Party policies. Many Christians compared the disaster to the story ofSodom and Gomorrah in theBook of Genesis.[citation needed]
Orthodox rabbiShmuley Boteach denounces such claims since they carry the implication ofvictim blaming,[39] writing that "For many of the faithful, the closer they come to God, the more they become enemies of man." He contrasts the Jewish tradition, which affords a special place to "arguing with God", with an approach to religion that "taught people not to challenge, but to submit. Not to question, but to obey. Not how to stand erect, but to be stooped and bent in the broken posture of the meek and pious."[39] Speaking about theCOVID-19 pandemic, Boteach said "I utterly reject and find it sickening when people believe that this is some kind of punishment from God – that really upsets me."[40][41]
AJesuit priest,James Martin, wrote on Twitter in response toHurricane Sandy that "If any religious leaders say tomorrow that the hurricane is God's punishment against some group they're idiots. God's ways are not our ways."[42]
In Buddhist literature, the belief in a creator god (issara-nimmana-vada) is frequently mentioned and rejected, along with other causes wrongly adduced to explain the origin of the world; as, for instance, world-soul, time, nature, etc. God-belief, however, is placed in the same category as those morally destructive wrong views which deny the kammic results of action, assume a fortuitous origin of man and nature, or teach absolute determinism. These views are said to be altogether pernicious, having definite bad results due to their effect on ethical conduct.
Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.
It's just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.' He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me... until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short... The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him. In the same way, if anyone were to say, 'I won't live the holy life under the Blessed One as long as he does not declare to me that 'The cosmos is eternal,'... or that 'After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,' the man would die and those things would still remain undeclared by the Tathagata.
Then in that case, a person is a killer of living beings because of a supreme being's act of creation... When one falls back on lack of cause and lack of condition as being essential, monks, there is no desire, no effort [at the thought], 'This should be done. This shouldn't be done.' When one can't pin down as a truth or reality what should & shouldn't be done, one dwells bewildered & unprotected. One cannot righteously refer to oneself as a contemplative.
The suttas describe thirty-one distinct "planes" or "realms" of existence into which beings can be reborn during this long wandering through samsara. These range from the extraordinarily dark, grim, and painful hell realms to the most sublime, refined, and exquisitely blissful heaven realms. Existence in every realm is impermanent; in Buddhist cosmology there is no eternal heaven or hell. Beings are born into a particular realm according to both their past kamma and their kamma at the moment of death. When the kammic force that propelled them to that realm is finally exhausted, they pass away, taking rebirth once again elsewhere, according to their kamma. And so the wearisome cycle continues.
Many people worship Maha Brahma as the supreme and eternal creator God, but for the Buddha he is merely a powerful deity still caught within the cycle of repeated existence. In point of fact, "Maha Brahma" is a role or office filled by different individuals at different periods." "His proof included the fact that "many thousands of deities have gone for refuge for life to the recluse Gotama" (MN 95.9). Devas, like humans, develop faith in the Buddha by practicing his teachings." "A second deva concerned with liberation spoke a verse which is partly praise of the Buddha and partly a request for teaching. Using various similes from the animal world, this god showed his admiration and reverence for the Exalted One.", "A discourse called Sakka's Questions (DN 21) took place after he had been a serious disciple of the Buddha for some time. The sutta records a long audience he had with the Blessed One which culminated in his attainment of stream-entry. Their conversation is an excellent example of the Buddha as "teacher of devas," and shows all beings how to work for Nibbana.
When this was said, the Great Brahma said to the monk, 'I, monk, am Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Sovereign Lord, the Maker, Creator, Chief, Appointer and Ruler, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be... That is why I did not say in their presence that I, too, don't know where the four great elements... cease without remainder. So you have acted wrongly, acted incorrectly, in bypassing the Blessed One in search of an answer to this question elsewhere. Go right back to the Blessed One and, on arrival, ask him this question. However he answers it, you should take it to heart.
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