How the Bible defines retributive justice

VR: The concept of retribution is that the evildoer should be deprived of happiness to in proportion to the wrongfulness or harmfulness of the act.




DBT: Is it? Is that how the Bible defines retributive justice?



VR: Let me change my answer to yes.



Here's Gen 4:23-24: And Lamech said unto his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; for I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me;

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.



By Exodus we get to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and that puts an upper limit on what can be avenged upon another person. You can't do what Lamech did.