What are the effects of revenge?

Judges 15:3-9Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.” Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves. “Who did this?” the Philistines demanded. “Samson,” was the reply, . . . So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death. “Because you did this,” Samson vowed, “I won’t rest until I take my revenge on you!” So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. . . . The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and spreading out near the town of Lehi.

Taking revenge creates a vicious cycle. Revenge demands revenge, and so on in a downward spiral that ends in the destruction of all involved. We should beware that when we want to give the next hit, the revenge that comes back may be more than we can take.

2 Samuel 3:26-29Joab then left David and sent messengers to catch up with Abner, asking him to return. They found him at the well of Sirah and brought him back, though David knew nothing about it. When Abner arrived back at Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gateway as if to speak with him privately. But then he stabbed Abner in the stomach and killed him in revenge for killing his brother Asahel. When David heard about it, he declared, “I vow by the Lord that I and my kingdom are forever innocent of this crime against Abner son of Ner. Joab and his family are the guilty ones. May the family of Joab be cursed in every generation with a man who has open sores or leprosy or who walks on crutches or dies by the sword or begs for food!”

Psalm 57:6My enemies have set a trap for me. I am weary from distress. They have dug a deep pit in my path, but they themselves have fallen into it.

Proverbs 26:27If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead.

Revenge has a boomerang effect that will come back to hurt us again and again.

Ezekiel 25:12-13“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The people of Edom have sinned greatly by avenging themselves against the people of Judah. Therefore, says the Sovereign Lord, I will raise my fist of judgment against Edom.”

Amos 1:11-12This is what the Lord says: “The people of Edom have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They chased down their relatives, the Israelites, with swords, showing them no mercy. In their rage, they slashed them continually and were unrelenting in their anger. So I will send down fire on Teman, and the fortresses of Bozrah will be destroyed.”

A spirit of revenge will be punished severely.