And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. And Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. (Judges 1:5-7)

Thumbs And Toes

There are some strange stories in the Bible, and none as unusual as the story of Adoni-Bezek. A city of Canaan called Bezek was ruled by a ruthless chieftain named Adoni-Bezek. He was in league with the Perizzites. During the conquest of Canaan, Adoni-Bezek was conquered by Simeon and Judah. It was an act of ‘lex talionis’ or the concept of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; the thumbs and big toes of Adoni-Bezek were cut off. This would render the king unable to run and incapacitate him from holding a weapon in his hand. It was a cruel manner to reduce a man to an invalid with no defense to protect himself. When Adoni-Bezek was punished, he admitted he had done the same thing to seventy kings he had subjected. The mangled kings became beggars in the king’s court, humiliating themselves before their conquerors. Cutting off the toes and thumbs reduced a man to being less than a man.

The Law of Moses suggested the principle of an eye for an eye. If a man caused disfigurement on his neighbor, as he has done, it would be done to him. This included fracture for fracture, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Adoni-Bezek was a pagan king, but because of his cruelty, Judah and Simeon delivered the same treatment to Adoni-Bezek as he had done to others in an act of revenge. There is a divine judgment upon those cruel to others to have punishment exacted upon them in the same fashion. Adoni-Bezek was a wicked man who delighted in the suffering of others who suffered the same fate he inflicted on his fellow man.

There has always been the law of reaping what is sown. Adoni-Bezek reaped the punishment for his crimes. He felt the crushing pain of having his thumbs and toes cut off. Learning to walk and hold things with the remaining fingers was humiliating, painful, and difficult. But this is how the seventy kings experienced the cruelty from Adoni-Bezek. Sin never goes unpunished. Many evil men escape the judgment for their crimes in this life, but all accounts are laid bare in the judgment. If a man never receives due reward for his crime, he will learn that crime does not pay when he wakes up in eternity. In the case of Adoni-Bezek, he was repaid in his own coin.

Jesus showed in the sermon on the mount that the law of revenge (eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth) was not in the constitution of the kingdom. What Jesus did not repeal is the judgment against cruelty and sin. The Christian learns to go the second mile for his enemy. Jesus further admonished that prayers should be given to those who seek to harm the child of God and to do good to them. The consequences of sin are not to be meted out by the Christian. Judgment in this manner is left to the mind of God. A man can escape the judgment of his unrighteous acts now, but the Lord will settle those matters in eternity.