{"id":87310,"date":"2021-01-22T12:20:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T10:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=87310"},"modified":"2021-01-22T12:20:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T10:20:11","slug":"retributive-justice-and-restorative-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/retributive-justice-and-restorative-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Retributive Justice and Restorative Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"87310","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"661","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Vindication, not vindictiveness\r\n\r\n","content":"

Anadiplosis is a rhetorical device that consists of the repetition of words or phrases. It is featured prominently at both the opening and closing of our psalm: \u201cGod of retribution\u201d (1), \u201chow long shall the wicked\u201d (3), and \u201cannihilate them\u201d (23). The repeated phrases reflect the principal elements of the psalm: the nature of God, human suffering, and the ultimate eradication of evil.<\/span><\/p>\n

Retributive justice, \u201cgive the arrogant their deserts\u201d (2), is the concept that the commission of a crime requires a commensurate punishment. The psalmist justifies his preference for this by describing those arrogant sinners as maintaining that \u201cThe Lord does not see it, the God of Jacob does not pay heed\u201d (7)\u2014an attitude we took note of previously in Psalm 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hebrew word <\/span>n\u2019kamot<\/span><\/em> that is translated here as retribution is frequently\u2014even usually\u2014translated as vengeance, which evokes a primitive image of a deity motivated more by emotion than justice. As explained by Nahum Sarna:<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike \u201crevenge,\u201d which is essentially antisocial, \u201cretribution\u201d is concerned with vindication, not with vindictiveness, with upholding or restoring a just social order, not primarily with retaliation (<\/span>Songs of the Heart<\/span><\/em>; Schocken, 1993, p.193).<\/span><\/p>\n

Consistent with this notion of restorative justice, restoring the social order, the psalmist observes that the victims of the wicked are the widow, the stranger, and the fatherless (6), those elements of society that may not have anyone to stand up for them and whose equitable treatment is a hallmark of Torah legislation (see Exodus 22:20-23, Deuteronomy 24:17-18). Moreover, concern over their treatment is depicted as an attribute of God Himself: \u201cFor the Lord your God is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing him with food and clothing\u201d (Deut. 10:17-18).<\/span><\/p>\n

Our psalmist is of the opinion that \u201cHappy is the man whom You discipline, O Lord, the man You instruct in Your teaching\u201d (12), which is at odds with the more prevalent view (serving as the backdrop for the Book of Job) that suffering is a necessary consequence of sin. In this regard, he is at one with \u201cWhom the Lord loves, He rebukes, as a father the son whom he favors\u201d (Proverbs 3:12), both expressions deriving from the Torah: \u201cBear in mind that the Lord your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son\u201d (Deut. 8:5).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":87334,"id":87334,"title":"ps94-justice vengeance","filename":"ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/retributive-justice-and-restorative-justice\/ps94-justice-vengeance\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps94-justice-vengeance","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":87310,"date":"2021-01-22 10:19:49","modified":"2021-01-22 10:19:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Retributive Justice and Restorative Justice","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Vindication, not vindictiveness","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":87334,"id":87334,"title":"ps94-justice vengeance","filename":"ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/retributive-justice-and-restorative-justice\/ps94-justice-vengeance\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps94-justice-vengeance","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":87310,"date":"2021-01-22 10:19:49","modified":"2021-01-22 10:19:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-justice-vengeance-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87335,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87310\/revisions\/87335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}