天罰

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 天罰 is read てんばつ and means punishment believed to come from heaven or a deity for wrongdoing.
• Basic usage: It expresses punishment feared by a wrongdoer or people's beliefs and interpretations concerning a disaster.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• The speaker's interpretation
  • 嵐を天罰だと決めつける means assuming that a storm is divine punishment. It presents someone's judgment rather than establishing divine punishment as the storm's cause.
• Compared with 刑罰
  • 刑罰(けいばつ) is a penalty imposed under the law. 天罰 belongs to religious or moral ideas of punishment from heaven or a deity.