In a society without police the law did not put much enjoin revence as limit punishment to the equal of the damage caused. But in Israel the nearest relative, the go'el, was obliged to protect the living rather than to avenge the dead.
the act of taking revenge (harming someone in retaliation for something harmful that they have done) especially in the next life; "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord"--Romans 12:19; "For vengeance I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge"--James Garfield; "he swore vengeance on the man who betrayed him"; "the swiftness of divine retribution"