Can Vengeance be a Virtue?

Some words are so unfashionable today that even religious people flinch when they hear them. “Vengeance” is one of them. To modern ears, it reeks of primal rage, of blind hatred, of people out of control. And yet the Bible uses that word explicitly. Not once. Not symbolically. But as a divine command.

Before Moses dies, before the Israelites cross into the Promised Land, God gives one last battle order. Not against Amalek. Not against Egypt. Not even against the Canaanite nations they will soon face in war. The final battle Moses is to lead is against Midian. Why?

Why would God direct Moses’s final act not toward settling the land, but toward an act of vengeance? Isn’t the Bible supposed to help us transcend lowly emotions like the desire for vengeance? As the verse says:

So how does vengeance fit in?

The Bible’s command to take vengeance on Midian jolts the reader and forces a deeper question: What kind of crime demands a response like this? To grasp it, we must examine what Midian truly attempted—and the unique threat they posed to Israel’s future.

The Egyptians were oppressors. They enslaved us, threw our children into the Nile, and broke our bodies through backbreaking labor. And yet the Bible commands:

If an Egyptian wishes to convert and join the Jewish people, they may do so. Their evil persecution of Israel, while horrific, was rooted in fear. Pharaoh feared the Israelites would multiply and rise up in rebellion against him. That unfounded fear led to great cruelty, but at least it had a motive.

Amalek, by contrast, struck us when we were weak and vulnerable. There was no provocation. Their attack was cowardly and sadistic. And yet even Amalek attacked with swords and physical force.

Midian’s attack was more subtle—and more dangerous. It was not a military campaign. It was a campaign meant to bring about Israel’s moral collapse. Midianite women entered the Israelite camp, seduced the men, and drew them into the idolatry of Baal Peor. This was a war not of armies, but of values. A war aimed not at destroying our bodies, but at severing our bond with God.

And it worked. Many Israelite men were seduced, and twenty-four thousand died in the aftermath.

Not from arrows or spears, but from a plague that came as a divine response to betrayal. That was the cost of Midian’s scheme.

But this was not just about what Midian did, but about why they did it. Midian wasn’t defending itself. It wasn’t seeking power. It hated Israel because of what Israel is: a people in covenant with God. A nation that represents moral discipline and spiritual purpose. Midian’s goal was to corrupt that purpose—to destroy Israel not by force, but by making us destroy ourselves.

The Sages teach: “He who has mercy on the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful.” Mercy has limits. When mercy protects the wicked, it becomes cruelty.

Vengeance, when commanded by God, is not an act of rage. It is a moral declaration.  It tells the world that perpetrating this kind of evil against God’s people will not be tolerated. 

And that brings us to the present.

Iran does not share a border with Israel. It has no territorial dispute with us. Its obsession with destroying Israel is ideological. Religious. Fanatical. It funds terror across the region, it builds nuclear weapons, and it declares openly—proudly—that it seeks our annihilation.

This is neither self-defense nor strategy. This is pure hatred – a modern-day Midian.

Israel was right to eliminate Iranian generals and nuclear scientists. President Trump was right to order the strike on Qassem Soleimani. These were not acts of aggression. They were acts of justice.

But justice is not enough. We want vengeance. Not because we are vengeful by nature. But because God’s honor is at stake.

Iran’s war is not just against Jews. It is a direct attack upon our covenant with God and our status as God’s chosen nation. It is against the God of Israel. And like Midian, it must not be tolerated.

God is King. Israel is His people. And those who raise their hands against either will face His vengeance. May the day soon come when the Iranian regime is not merely weakened, but crushed – and its name erased from the map of history.