Reference: Crimes and Punishments
Hastings
The term 'crimes' is here used loosely in the sense of punishable offences, including not merely crimes (crimina) in the sense of breaches of the criminal law in the modern sense, and torts (delicta) or breaches of the civil law, but also those offences in the sphere of religion and worship to which definite penalties were attached. Within the limits of this article it is possible to present only a summary of the more important and typical punishable offences recognized in the various Hebrew law-codes. The latter, indicated by the usual symbols, are: (1) BC, the oldest code, known as the Book of the Covenant, Ex 20:22 to Ex 23:33, with which for convenience sake is joined the Decalogue of Ex 20:2-17; (2) Deuteronomist, the Deuteronomic Code, De 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; (3) Law of Holiness, the Holiness Code, 2000'>Le 17; 2000'>18; 2000'>19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; and (4) Priestly Narrative, the great collection of laws known as the Priests' Code, and comprising the rest of the legislative material of the Pentateuch. In the case of Priestly Narrative alone will it be necessary to name the books (Ex., Lv., or Nu.) to which reference is made.
The penal offences of the Pentateuch may be conveniently grouped under the three heads of crimes against Jahweh, against society (including property), and against the individual.
1. A. Crimes against Jahweh, or offences in the sphere of religion and worship.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by harlotry. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.
I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. read more. You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any thing that is your neighbor's.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus you shall say unto the children of Israel, You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me: for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto you.
Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall you make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.
Six days may work be done; but on the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever does any work on the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
Whatsoever soul it be that eats any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
But the man that is clean, and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in its appointed time, that man shall bear his sin.
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.
And lest you lift up your eyes unto heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, should be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your God has apportioned unto all nations under the whole heaven.
If you shall hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God has given you to dwell there, anyone saying,
You shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is in it, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And you shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof, unto the LORD your God: and it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. read more. And there shall cleave none of the accursed thing to your hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion upon you, and multiply you, as he has sworn unto your fathers;
And has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
Then shall you bring forth that man or that woman, who has committed that wicked thing, unto your gates, even that man or that woman, and shall stone them with stones, till they die.
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put the evil away from among you.
And if a Levite come from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose; Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the LORD. read more. They shall have equal portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his family possessions. When you are come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or sorcery, or interprets omens, or is a witch, Or casts spells, or is a medium, or a wizard, or consults the dead. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you. You shall be perfect with the LORD your God. For these nations, which you shall possess, hearkened unto sorcerers, and unto diviners: but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you so to do. The LORD your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me; unto him you shall hearken; According to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing follows not, nor comes to pass, that is, the thing which the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously: you shall not be afraid of him.
But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and wounds him mortally that he dies, and flees into one of these cities:
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
When you come near unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it makes to you an answer of peace, and opens unto you, then it shall be, that all the people that are found therein shall be subject unto you, and they shall serve you.
And when the LORD your God has delivered it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shall you take unto yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. read more. Thus shall you do unto all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
Only the trees which you know will not be trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.
So shall you put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.
And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is to be put to death, and you hang him on a tree:
And the young woman's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man as a wife, and he hates her;
And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; And they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the young woman, because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
And they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the young woman, because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
And they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the young woman, because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. But if this thing is true, and the evidence of virginity is not found for the young woman:
But if this thing is true, and the evidence of virginity is not found for the young woman: Then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones so that she dies: because she has wrought folly in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house: so shall you put evil away from among you.
Then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones so that she dies: because she has wrought folly in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house: so shall you put evil away from among you. If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shall you put away evil from Israel.
But if a man find a betrothed young woman in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:
Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he has violated her, he may not put her away all his days.
Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he has violated her, he may not put her away all his days.
There shall be no harlot of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
In any case you shall deliver him the pledge again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own clothing, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness unto you before the LORD your God.
You shall not pervert the justice due the stranger, nor the fatherless; nor take a widow's clothing as pledge:
If there is a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.
When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smites him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by his private parts:
But you shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shall you have: that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
Cursed be the man that makes any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and got him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.
And whosoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.
And whosoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.
Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison.
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes less one.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.