Editing Divine retribution (section)

{{Short description|Supernatural punishment by a deity}}
{{For|the TV series|Divine Retribution (TV series)}}
{{Redirect|Divine punishment|the 1986 album by Diananda Galás|The Divine Punishment}}
[[File:John Martin - The Great Day of His Wrath - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''The End of the World'', commonly known as ''[[The Great Day of His Wrath]]'',<ref>Michael Wheeler, ''Heaven, Hell, and the Victorians'', [[Cambridge University Press]], 1994, p.83</ref> an 1851–1853 [[oil painting]] on [[canvas]] by the English painter [[John Martin (painter)|John Martin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/martin/index.html|title=Web Gallery of Art, searchable fine arts image database|website=www.wga.hu}}</ref> According to Frances Carey, the painting shows the "destruction of [[Babylon]] and the material world by natural cataclysm". This painting, Carey holds, is a response to the emerging industrial scene of London as a metropolis in the early nineteenth century, and the original growth of the Babylon civilisation and its final destruction. According to the [[Tate Britain|Tate]], the painting depicts a portion of [[Revelation 16]], a chapter from the [[New Testament]].]]
{{Attributes of God}}
{{Theodicy}}

'''Divine retribution''' is [[supernatural]] [[punishment]] of a person, a group of people, or everyone by a [[deity]] in response to some action. Many [[culture]]s have a story about how a deity imposed punishment on previous inhabitants of their land, causing their doom.

An example of divine retribution is the story found in many religions about a great [[Deluge (mythology)|flood]] destroying all of humanity, as described in the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]], the [[Hindu]] [[Vedas]], or the [[Book of Genesis]] (6:9–8:22), leaving one principal 'chosen' survivor. In the first example, the survivor is [[Utnapishtim]], in the Hindu Vedas, it is [[Vaivasvata Manu|Manu]], and in the last example, it is [[Noah]]. References in the [[Old Testament]] and the [[Quran]] to a man named Nuh (Noah) who was commanded by [[God]] to build an [[Noah's Ark|ark]] also suggest that one man and his followers were saved in a [[Genesis flood narrative|great flood]].

Other examples in Bible history include the dispersion of the builders of the [[Tower of Babel]] (Genesis 11:1–9), the destruction of [[Sodom and Gomorrah]] (Genesis 18:20–21, 19:23–28) ([[Quran 7:80–84]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://quran.com/7/80-84|title=Surah Al-A'raf [7:80–84]|website=Surah Al-A'raf [7:80–84]}}</ref> and the [[Ten Plagues]] visited upon the [[ancient Egypt]]ians for persecuting the [[children of Israel]] (Exodus, Chapters 7–12).

In [[Greek mythology]], the goddess [[Hera]] 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 by [[Poseidon]].

The Bible refers to divine retribution as, in most cases, being delayed or "treasured up" to a future time.<ref>Luke 3:7; Romans 2:5</ref> Sight of God's supernatural works and retribution would militate against faith in God's Word.<ref>For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope...(Romans 8:24)</ref> [[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, powerful [[creator deity|creator]] 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.<ref>{{cite web|last=Craig|first=William Lane|title=Is Unbelief Culpable?|url=http://www.reasonablefaith.org/is-unbelief-culpable|publisher=Reasonable Faith|access-date=19 May 2014}}</ref>

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, in [[Deism]] and [[Pandeism]], the creator does not intervene in our Universe at all, either for good or for ill, and therefore exhibits no such behavior. In [[Pantheism]] (as reflected in Pandeism as well), God ''is'' 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 of [[Hinduism]], as well.