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There is a trope in Judaism that God smites even the greatest Empires when they oppress the Jews.

Does God ever smite nations that are wicked to other non-Jews? We do have the example of Sodom, but perhaps they were smitten because they were totally evil or because they would have been a bad influence of Abraham's family.

Does God ever smite Jews that are wicked to non-Jews? The only possible instance I can think of is when God tells David to murder Saul's family in revenge for harassing the Gibeonites. But this could be punishment for violating Joshua's oath with them.

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  • why would that be given a free pass? – michael Mar 23 '19 at 22:25
  • Read seifer Ovadiah. Or Yonah. These are prophets sent to non-Jewish empires (Edom and Assyria, respectively) for the sole purpose of bringing them to teshuvah. Hadn't they listened, they apparently would have been destroyed under the weight of their own sins; nothing to do with the Jews. (PS: A lot of frum tropes don't really jibe with actual Torah. I don't know about this one, but I suspect it's on the list.) – Micha Berger Mar 24 '19 at 1:39
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THe base of your question is causality. You're saying "does G-d smite ... because ..." implying that G-d is just and the consequences of "wickedness" are followed by a visible punishment right away. While this is theoretically true, empirically there's no connection.

We either don't understand the relative wickedness or the punishment is invisible to us or it spans more time than we imagine.

G-d is not bound to causality - only our perception is.

Similarly the idea of "caring" does not apply to G-d, it exists only in our perception - one who does actions favorable for us is considered "caring". Let's simplify t to "G-d is running this whole place" whether some actions seem favorable or not.

In theory, there's are no things that don't eventually affect the Jews as the whole world is created "around" the idea of the Jews and G-d does not waste anything in His Creation.

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