Poetic License

Therefore, says the Master, LORD of Armies, Israel’s Mighty One: Oh, I will settle scores with my foes and take vengeance on my enemies.  Isaiah 1:24  Robert Alter

Take vengeance – As you recall, the verb translated “settle scores” is typically a verb about consolation or regret. We noticed the shadow of this idea when Isaiah pushed the envelope in order to include a notion of holding rulers accountable.  Perhaps God does feel regret that human avarice has pushed Him to act as executioner.  But perhaps there’s another reason why Isaiah forces this meaning on a word that ordinarily has a much more compassionate tone.  The two words translated “settle scores” and “take vengeance” have structural similarity.  Alter comments: “The verb hinahem usually means ‘to change one’s mind’ or ‘to regret’ and can also mean ‘to be consoled.’  It is quite close phonetically to hinaqem, ‘to be avenged,’ which appears in the second verset, and the poet seems to have pushed the term here to mean something close to ‘vengeance.’”[1]  Isaiah bends the meanings in order to force the reader to think of the first term as a shadow of the second.

What, then, does hinaqem mean?  Note the caution by Smick:

Although this root, including its derivatives, is only used about seventy times in the ot, it expresses a truth that is theologically important, but greatly misunderstood. Vengeance and revenge are ideas that would appear to have no good ethical validity whether coming from God or man. But such is not the case when the use of this root is properly understood in its ot setting and nt application.

The concept of divine vengeance must be understood in the light of ot teaching about the holiness and justice of God and its effect on man as a sinner. In terms of the presuppositions of some modern “Christian” theologies, such a God of vengeance will be labeled unchristian and unethical. Understood in the full orb of biblical revelation, balanced as it is by the mercy of God, divine vengeance is seen to be a necessary aspect of the history of redemption.^[2]

Theologies that present God as only filled with grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love are not biblical.  They are wish-list excuses for God’s moral holiness.  Smick is right.  If you ignore divine retribution, you have a pagan deity.

But we should add to this fact our discovery about the shadows of divine suffering that accompany retribution.  Vengeance is a component of God’s actions toward men, but it isn’t His preferred option nor His heart’s intention.  It’s a necessity of moral governance but there is no consolation in its application.  “Are these not my children also” is the appropriate way to view God’s retributive justice.  Men may force God to withdraw His animating spirit, but that doesn’t mean He wants to, and in these verses the poet intimates God’s regret.

Topical Index: hinahem, hinaqem, vengeance, regret, Isaiah 1:24

[1] Robert Alter, Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible Volume 2 Prophets, p. 625, fn. 24.

^[2] Smick, E. B. (1999). 1413 נָקַם. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 598). Chicago: Moody Press.