divine punishment
Wrath from above
Divine punishment is harm or suffering believed to be inflicted by God or gods as retribution for sin or wrongdoing.
The concept appears across religions—floods, plagues, and disasters interpreted as heaven's judgment: They saw the earthquake as divine punishment for the city's wickedness.
The phrase sometimes appears ironically when misfortune befalls someone after bad behavior: Spilling coffee on his shirt felt like divine punishment for skipping the meeting.
- sinViolation of divine law
- seven deadly sinsTraditional mortal transgressions
- NemesisGreek deity of vengeance
- plaguesMass outbreaks of disease
- plague of locustsMass insect agricultural disaster
retribution · judgment · damnation · Ragnarok · justice · hell · lake of fire · flood myths · karma · hubris · fallen angel · Tartarus · curses · fire and brimstone · apocalypse · commandments · Sisyphus · thunderbolts
- Apollolyre, Delphi, laurel, sun god, oracle
- Chinese Mythologycreation story, Jade Emperor, white snake, celestial beings, fox spirits
- Cupid and PsychePsyche, Cupid, Eros, Venus, Aphrodite
- Flood MythsNoah, deluge, flood myth, biblical flood, flood story
- PrometheusPrometheus, titan, Caucasus, Zeus, chains
- religious dreadholy fear, damnation, hellfire, wrath of God, holy terror
divine punishmentdivine blessing
Sacred favor from deity
divine favor · divine reward · heavenly reward · divine grace · divine mercy
divine punishmentdivine forgiveness
Deity pardoning wrongdoing
absolution · divine pardon · redemption · atonement · clemency