divine retribution

Buddhism

The concept of divine retribution is resolutely denied in Buddhism. Gautama Buddha did not endorse belief in a creator deity, refused to express any views on creation, and stated that questions on the origin of the world are worthless. The non-adherence to the notion of an omnipotent creator deity or a prime 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" must not be taken as a single, holistic religious concept.

Buddhists do accept the existence of beings in higher realms (see Buddhist cosmology), known as devas, but they, like humans, are said to be suffering in samsara, and are not necessarily wiser than humans on earth. The Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Despite this, there are believed to be enlightened devas but since there may also be unenlightened devas, there also may be god like beings who engage in retributive acts and if they do so, then they do so out of their own ignorance of the greater truth.

Despite this nontheism, Buddhism ,nevertheless, fully accepts the theory of karma, which posits punishment-like effects, such as rebirths in realms 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.

Abrahamic Religions

"The wrath of God", an anthropomorphic expression for the attitude which some believe God has towards sin, is mentioned many times in the Bible.

Hebrew Bible

• Genesis 3:14–24 – Curse upon Adam and Eve and expulsion from the Garden of Eden; disobedience
• Genesis 4:9–15 – Curse upon Cain after his slaying of his brother, Abel
• Genesis 6–7 – The Great Flood; rampant evil and Nephilim
• Genesis 11:1–9 – The confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel; to scatter them over the Earth
• Genesis 19:23–29 – Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; people of no redeeming value
• Genesis 38:6–10 – Destruction of Er and Onan; wickedness in the Lord's sight
• Exodus 7–14 – Plagues of Egypt; to establish his power over that of the gods of Egypt
• Exodus 19:10–25 – Divine threats at Mount Sinai; warn that the mountain is off limits and holy
• Exodus 32 – Plagues at the incident of the golden calf; disowning the people for breaking his covenant with them
• Leviticus 10:1–2 – Nadab and Abihu are burned; offering unauthorized fire in their censers
• Leviticus 26:14–39 – Curses upon the disobedient; divine warning
• Numbers 11 – A plague accompanies the giving of manna in the wilderness; rejecting his gracious gift of heavenly food and failing his test of obedience
• Numbers 16 – The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram – their supernatural deaths and the plague that followed; insolence and attempting self-promotion to roles they were unworthy of holding
• Numbers 20:9–13 – Reprimand of Moses at the water of Meribah; disobeying the Lord's instruction, showing distrust and indifference in God's presence
• Numbers 21 – Murmuring of the people and the plague of fiery flying serpent; spurning God's grace
• Numbers 25 – Whoredom with the Moabites and resulting plague; breaching God's covenant through sexual immorality and worshipping other gods
• Deuteronomy 28 – Curses pronounced upon the disobedient; another divine warning
• 1 Samuel 6:19 – some/many men of Beth Shemesh killed; looking into the Ark of the Covenant
• 2 Samuel 6:1–7 – Uzzah struck dead; touching the Ark of the Covenant
• 1 Kings 11 – God promises to tear King Solomon's kingdom from his son except for a single tribe; building altars to other gods for his wives
• – sending trials to the just man Job

New Testament and Christian thought

Attributes of God in Christianity#Wrath
The New Testament associates the wrath of God particularly with imagery of the Last Day, described allegorically in as the "day of wrath". The wrath of God is mentioned in at least twenty verses of the New Testament. Examples are:

• – John the Baptist declares that whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son, or in some English translations, does not believe the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
• – Ananias and his wife Sapphira are struck dead for holding back some of the proceeds after selling a piece of property
• – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
• – Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
• – Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
• – Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
• – For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to withstand?
• – So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
• – Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God was finished.
• – From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

Quran

In Islam, the concept of divine retribution is fundamentally the principle of Jaza (recompense), affirming that Allah (God) justly and perfectly recompenses all human actions. This comprehensive system of accountability manifests through both reward for good deeds and punishment for wrongdoing. While consequences may be experienced in worldly life as trials or natural repercussions, the full measure of Jaza is delivered in the Hereafter. The doctrine’s ultimate goal is to establish absolute justice, compelling believers toward righteousness by balancing the fear of divine wrath with the hope for divine mercy.

40:17 This Day every soul will be recompensed for what it earned. No injustice today! Indeed, Allāh is swift in account.

• : People of Nuh (Noah) who were drowned in the flood
• and : Ād (people of Hud) who God sent a stormy cold wind against them for seven nights and eight Days successively, which killed them all
• : Thamud (people of Salih), who killed the miraculous she-camel, so God sent against them several natural disasters, such as a storm and a powerful earthquake, thereby destroying them
• and : Sodom and Gomorrah, who because of homosexuality, God turned the town upside down and rained on them stones. Previously when they asked Lut to leave his guests to them in order to commit the shameful act, God blinded their eyes.
• : People of Ibrahim (Abraham) that had divine retribution after denying Ibrahim
• and : Dwellers of the Cities of Median and Aikah, who denied prophet Shuaib (Jethro) and in selling did notgive full measure and weight with justice, so an earthquake and blast hit them and killed them all.
• : Pharaoh's people were punished by Years of drought and shortage of crops. Also God sent upon them all sorts of calamities: a flood, locusts, lice, frogs and blood, a succession of signs representing Allah's wrath.
• Pharaoh and his people, which God drowned in the sea, because they belied his signs and miracles and were heedless about them
• : Korah was punished due to his extreme arrogance by being swallowed by earth along with all his great material wealth.
• and : 70 chosen Israelites who asked for visiting God, and were seized with a thunderbolt, and then were raised to life after death
• and : Companions of the Sabbath who became apes, because of breaking the rule of Sabbath and fishing on that day
• and : Israelites, when they revoltingly persisted in what they had been forbidden, the Lord announced that He would send against them those who would impose the worst torment on them until Resurrection Day
• and : the wrongdoers of the Israelites changed The Word which was stated to them, for an irrelevant word, so God sent them a plague from the heavens due to their evildoing
• : The Israelites breaking their covenant, whom God cursed them and made their hearts Hard, so they changed the words of Torah from their right places and have forgotten a part of the Message that was sent to them
• and : People of Yunus (Jonah), whom when they saw the symptoms of torment, believed God and obeyed him, so he removed from them the torment; because Yunus wasn't patient enough and left his people before God tells him to do so, a fish swallowed him; and after he admitted his wrongdoing and glorified God, God accepted his repentance and released him from the fish's belly
• : People of Sabaʾ(Sheba) whom because of their ingratitude, God afflicted them with a violent flood arising from a broken dam, and destroyed their productive gardens and dispersed the people
• and : People of Tubba who were punished by God after denying their prophet
• and : Companions of the Rass that rejected their messenger, so they became the subject of divine torment
• : Owners of the burnt garden, whom because of not giving to the poor, an affliction fell upon their garden from God, and the garden was turned into a black barren land
• : The owner of a beautiful garden, whom because of his arrogance and denial of the day of resurrection, an affliction fell upon their garden from God, and the garden was ruined on its trellises and its fruits were all destroyed
• : People of Ya-Sin: After they belied the messengers and killed the believer, there was a single and sudden divine outcry and they all became silent and Motionless corpses.
• : Companions of the elephant who were stoned by birds, because they wanted to destroy the Kaaba.

Alleged modern examples

Since the 1812 Caracas earthquake occurred on Maundy Thursday while the Venezuelan War of Independence was raging, it was explained by royalist authorities as divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown. The archbishop 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". This prompted the widely quoted answer of Simón Bolívar: "If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature and make it obey".

While some Orthodox Jews believed that the Holocaust was divine retribution for sins, this argument has many critics. In contrast, many Germans at the time believed that the bombing of Germany was divine retribution for the November pogrom, although seeing the bombings as divine retribution became less popular after the war.

The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak in the United States, was regarded by some people in the local African-American community as divine retribution for the lynching of Jesse Washington over thirty years prior.

Various Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders claimed that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment on the United States, New Orleans or the world for any of a variety of alleged sins, including abortion, sexual immorality (including the gay pride event Southern Decadence), the policies of the American Empire, failure to support Israel, and failure of black people to study the Torah.

The 2007 UK floods were claimed by Graham Dow to be God's punishment against homosexuals.

Televangelist Pat Robertson stirred up controversy after claiming that the 2010 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 the Haitian Revolution. Yehuda Levin, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, linked the earthquake to gays in the military via an alleged Talmudic teaching that homosexuality causes earthquakes. Levin posted a video onYouTube the same day as the 2011 Virginia earthquake in which he said, "The Talmud states, "You have shaken your male member in 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".

Chaplain John McTernan said that Hurricane Isaac, like Hurricane Katrina, was God's punishment on homosexuals. Buster Wilson of the American Family Association concurred with that statement.

McTernan also said that Hurricane Sandy may have been God's punishment against homosexuals. In addition, WorldNetDaily columnist William Koenig, along with McTernan himself, suggested that American support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to the hurricane.

Malaysian politician Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the brutal 2018 Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami was "God's (Allah) rage against homosexuals in Indonesia because they were allowed to live in Indonesia".

Orthodox rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said the brutal 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was an act of Divine Retribution, saying "God is judging all the nations around us who wanted to invade our land and throw us into the sea,".

Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said the deadly 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's (Allah) rebuke against Turkey because of weak response against the holy book (Quran) burning by right wing extremist groups in Sweden".

ISIS officials said the deadly 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.

Rebuttals

Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach denounces such claims since they carry the implication of victim blaming, 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 for "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." Speaking about the COVID-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."

A Jesuit priest, James Martin, wrote on Twitter in response to Hurricane 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."

See also

• Apocalypse
• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• Apocalyptic literature
• Act of God
• Christian eschatology
• Collective punishment
• Confirmation bias
• Divine judgment
• Divine providence
• Eye for an eye
• Frontier justice
• Just-world fallacy
• Karma
• Law of the jungle
• Mills of God
• Nemesis
• Penal substitution
• Retribution (poem)
• Retributive justice
• Societal collapse
• Spirit away
• Western Christianity

References

• Topical Bible: Divine Retribution, 2025-07-21, biblehub.com
• Surah Al-A'raf , 7:80–84, Surah Al-A'raf , 7:80–84
• Thera, Nyanaponika, Buddhism and the God-idea, The Vision of the Dhamma, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 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.
• The All Embracing Net of Views: Brahmajala Sutta, 2007, Buddhist Publication Society, Bhikku Bodhi, Access To Insight, Kandy, Sri Lanka, III.1, III.2, III.5
• Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable, AN 4.77, Access To Insight, Thanissaro Bhikku, en, 1997, Conjecture about , 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.
• Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta: The Shorter Instructions to Malunkya, Access To Insight, Thanissaro Bhikku, en, 1998, 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.
• Bhikku, Thanissaro, Tittha Sutta: Sectarians, 1997, Anguttara Nikaya, 3.61, en, 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 , 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 Thirty-one planes of Existence, Access To Insight, May 26, 2010, John T Bullitt, 2005, 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.
• Teacher of the Devas, 1997, Buddhist Publication Society, Susan Elbaum Jootla, Access To Insight, Kandy, Sri Lanka, II. The Buddha Teaches Deities, "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."
• Bhikku, Thanissaro, Kevaddha Sutta, 1997, Access To Insight, Digha Nikaya, 11, 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.
• Yidams, www.himalayanart.org
• Surah Ghafir – 17, 2025-11-30, Quran.com, en
• Nacimiento de una nación; Terremoto de 1812, August 20, 2006, spanish
• Lasker, Daniel J., Reflection: The Holocaust as Retributive Justice, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 1997, 15, 3, 97–105, 10.1353/sho.1997.0059, 1534-5165, subscription
• Bankier, David, The Final Solution, 1994, Routledge, GERMAN PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE FINAL SOLUTION, 10.4324/9780203206317-20, 1 July 2025
• Hughes, M.L., 'Through No Fault of Our Own': West Germans Remember Their War Losses, German History, 1 February 2000, 18, 2, 193–213, 10.1191/026635500670467229
• Carrigan, William D., The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836–1916, 2006, University of Illinois Press, Champaign
• Rabbi: Hurricane punishment for pullout, Ynetnews, 7 September 2005, Alush, Zvi
• Some say natural catastrophe was 'divine judgment', 4 September 2005
• Superstorm Sandy and many more disasters that have been blamed on the gay community, London, The Guardian, Tim, Dowling, October 30, 2012
• Pat Robertson: Haiti "Cursed" After "Pact to the Devil", live, September 6, 2012
• Fear the almighty wrath: Five natural disasters "caused" by gays, 30 October 2012
• Kaitkan LGBT dengan Gempa-Tsunami di Sulteng, Politisi Malaysia Dikecam, id, Aprilia, Keisyah, BenarNews Indonesia, 9 March 2024, 24 October 2018
• Turkey-Syria earthquake: Controversial Israeli rabbi calls disaster 'divine justice', Middle East Eye, 24 April 2024, 12 February 2023
• Syria-Turkey earthquake 'divine punishment' for Arabs 'lax response' to Quran burnings: Sadr, The New Arab, 16 July 2024, 7 February 2023
• How ISIS and al-Qaeda Exploit the Earthquake in Turkey to Mobilize Support, Botobekov, Uran, Homeland Security Today, 12 January 2024, 27 February 2023
• The Defiant Man of Faith, www.beliefnet.com
• How to reignite your sexual chemistry during the COVID-19 lockdown, Rodney Pratt and Jenny Ky, April 20, 2020, 7News.com.au
• The Passover story has new relevance in the age of coronavirus, April 6, 2020, Jim, Beckerman, North Jersey Media Group
• Hurricane Sandy God's Punishment? Priest Shuts Down Claims as Twitter Users Mock Pat Robertson, Nicola, Menzie, Christian Post, Reporter, October 29, 2012, The Christian Post

External links

• R. G. V. Tasker. The Biblical Doctrine of the Wrath of God
• Gili Kugler, When God Wanted to Destroy the Chosen People: Biblical Traditions and Theology on the Move
• W. L. Craig.True Love: The Doctrine of Divine Retribution
• Herbert W. Byrne. The Wrath of God (2005 isbn 1-59781-511-X)