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, Le 17; 18; 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
"[As for] the one shedding the blood of humankind, by humankind his blood shall be shed, for God made humankind in his own image.
And {about three months later} it was told to Judah, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the whore, and now, behold, she has conceived by prostitution." And Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned."
"I [am] Yahweh, your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves. "There shall be for you no other gods before me. read more. "You shall not make for yourself a divine image [with] any form that [is] in the heavens above or that [is] in the earth below or that [is] in the water below the earth. You will not bow down to them, and you will not serve them, because I [am] Yahweh your God, a jealous God, punishing [the] guilt of [the] parents on the children on [the] third and on [the] fourth [generations] of those hating me, and showing loyal love to thousands [of generations] of those loving me and of those keeping my commandments. "You shall not {misuse the name of Yahweh your God}, because Yahweh will not leave unpunished [anyone] who {misuses his name}. "Remember the day of the Sabbath, to consecrate it. Six days you will work, and you will do all your work. But the seventh day [is] a Sabbath for Yahweh your God; you will not do any work--you or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your animal, or your alien who [is] in your gates-- because [in] six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that [is] in them, and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore Yahweh blessed the seventh day and consecrated it. "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days can be long on the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving you. "You shall not murder. "You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not steal. "You shall not testify against your neighbor [with] a false witness. "You shall not covet the house of your neighbor; you will not covet the wife of your neighbor or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that [is] your neighbor's."
And Yahweh said to Moses, "Thus you will say to the {Israelites}, 'You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from the heavens.
They will not live in your land, lest they cause you to sin against me when you serve their gods, for it will be a snare to you.'"
It will not be poured on human flesh, and with its measurements you will not make [any] like it; it is holy; it will be holy to you.
[On] six days work can be done, and on the seventh {is a Sabbath of complete rest}, {a holy day} for Yahweh; anyone doing work on the Sabbath day will surely be put to death.
But the man who [is] clean and not on a journey, and he fails to observe the Passover, that person will be cut off from the people because he did not present the offering of Yahweh on its appointed time. That man will bear his guilt.
When the {Israelites} were in the desert, they found a man who was gathering wood on the day of the Sabbath.
And Balaam said to Balak, "Build for me these seven altars, and prepare for me these seven bulls and seven rams."
{And do this so that you do not lift} your eyes [toward] heaven and {observe} the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all [of] the peoples under all [of] the heaven.
"If you hear in one of your towns which Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to live in, [someone] {saying that}
[then] you shall certainly strike down the inhabitants of that town with the {edge} of [the] sword; you shall destroy it and everything in it, its domestic animals with [the] {edge} of [the] sword. And [then] you shall gather all of its booty into the middle of its public square, and you shall burn the town and all [of] its war-booty totally for Yahweh your God, and it shall be {a pile of rubble forever}; it shall not be built again. read more. And let not something cling to your hand from the things devoted to destruction, so that Yahweh may turn back {from his burning anger}, and he may show compassion to you and he may [continue] to show compassion and [so] multiply you {just as he swore} to your ancestors,
and by going and serving other gods and [so] he bows down to them and to the sun or to the moon or to any [of] the host of heaven {which I have forbidden},
then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates; that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them with stones {to death}.
The hand of the witnesses shall be first against the person to kill the person, and afterward the hands [of] all the people, and [so] you shall purge the evil from your midst.
And if a Levite comes from one of your {towns} from {anywhere in Israel} where he is residing, {he may come whenever he desires}, to the place that Yahweh will choose, and he may minister in the name of Yahweh his God, [just] like all his brothers, {the Levites who stand there} {before} Yahweh. read more. They shall eat {equal portions}, apart from what he may receive from the sale of his patrimony. "When you come to the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, you must not learn to do like the detestable practices of those nations. [There] shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, [or] {one who practices divination}, [or] an interpreter of signs, or an augur, or sorcerer, or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults spirit of the dead, or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead. For everyone doing these [things] [is] detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God [is] driving them out from {before you}. You must be blameless before Yahweh your God. For these nations that you [are] about to dispossess listen to interpreters of signs and to diviners, but Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do the same. "Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen, [and] to him you shall listen. [This is] {according to all that you asked} from Yahweh your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, {saying}, '{I do not want again to hear} the voice of Yahweh my God, [and] I do not want to see again this great fire, so that I may not die!' And Yahweh said to me, 'They are right [in] what they have said. I will raise up a prophet for them {from among their countrymen} like you, and I will place my words into his mouth, and he shall speak to them {everything that I command him}.
[Whenever] what the prophet spoke in the name of Yahweh, the thing does not take place and [does] not come [about], that [is] the thing that Yahweh has not spoken to him. Presumptuously the prophet spoke it; you shall not fear that prophet."
But if someone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him {and murders him}, and [the murderer] flees to one of these cities,
{The testimony of a single witness may not be used to convict} [with respect to] any crime and for any wrongdoing in any offense that a person committed; on the {evidence} of two witnesses or on the {evidence} of three witnesses {a charge shall be sustained}.
"When you approach a city to fight against it, {you must offer it peace}. {And then} if {they accept your terms of peace} and {they surrender to you}, {and then} all the people {inhabiting it} shall be forced labor for you, and they shall serve you.
And Yahweh your God will give it into your hand, and you shall kill all its males with the {edge} of [the] sword. Only the women and the little children and the domestic animals and all that shall be in the city, all of its spoil you may loot for yourselves, and you may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that Yahweh you God has given to you. read more. Thus you shall do to all the far cities from you, which [are] not from the cities of these nations located {nearby}.
Only the trees that you know {are not fruit trees} you may destroy and you may cut down, and you may build siege works against that city that is making war with you {until it falls}."
And [so] you shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, because you must do the right thing in the eyes of Yahweh.
"And {if a man commits a sin punishable by death}, and [so] he is put to death and you hang him on a tree,
And [then] the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man as wife, but he [now] {dislikes} her,
Then the elders of that city shall take the man, and they shall discipline him. Then they shall fine him hundred [shekels of] silver, and they shall give [them] to the father of the young woman, for {he defamed an Israelite young woman}, and {she shall become his wife}; he will not be allowed {to divorce her} all his days.
Then they shall fine him hundred [shekels of] silver, and they shall give [them] to the father of the young woman, for {he defamed an Israelite young woman}, and {she shall become his wife}; he will not be allowed {to divorce her} all his days.
Then they shall fine him hundred [shekels of] silver, and they shall give [them] to the father of the young woman, for {he defamed an Israelite young woman}, and {she shall become his wife}; he will not be allowed {to divorce her} all his days. "But if {this charge} was true, {and the signs of virginity were not found} for the young woman,
"But if {this charge} was true, {and the signs of virginity were not found} for the young woman, and [then] they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel {by playing the harlot} [in] the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.
and [then] they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel {by playing the harlot} [in] the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst. "If a man is found lying {with a married woman}, then they shall both die; {both of them}, the man who lay with the woman and the woman [also], so you shall purge the evil from Israel.
"But if the man finds the young engaged woman in the field and the man overpowers her and {he has sex with her}, then the man only must die who lay with her.
then {the man who lay with her} shall give to the father of the young woman fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall become {his wife} {because} he violated her, and he is not allowed to divorce her {during his lifetime}.
then {the man who lay with her} shall give to the father of the young woman fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall become {his wife} {because} he violated her, and he is not allowed to divorce her {during his lifetime}.
"No woman {of Israel} shall be a temple prostitute, and no man {of Israel} shall be a male shrine prostitute.
You shall certainly return the pledge to him {as the sun sets}, so that he may sleep in his cloak and may bless you, and it shall be [considered] righteousness {on your behalf} {before} Yahweh your God.
You shall not subvert the rights of an alien [or] an orphan, and you shall not take as pledge [the] garment of a widow.
"When a legal dispute {takes place} between men and they come near to the court, and [the judges] judge [with respect to] them, then they shall declare the righteous [to be] in the right and they shall condemn the wicked,
"If a man and his brother fight each other and the wife of the one [man] comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of his attacker and she stretches [out] her hand and she seizes his genitals,
[Rather] a full and honest weight shall be {for your use}; there shall be for you a full and honest {measure}, so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you may be long.
'Cursed be the man that makes a divine image or a cast image, [which is] a detestable thing for Yahweh, the work of the hand of a skilled craftsman, and [then] sets [it] in a hiding place.' And {all the people shall respond}, 'Amen.'
When Ahithophel saw that his advice [was] not followed, he saddled the donkey, and he set out and went up to his house in his city. {After he set his house in order}, he hanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his ancestors.
All who do not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with diligence, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of goods and for imprisonment."
All who do not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with diligence, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of goods and for imprisonment."
Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that [were] in the upper Gate of Benjamin, which [was] by the temple of Yahweh.
And he sent [orders] [and] had John beheaded in the prison,
And throwing the silver coins into the temple he departed. And he went away [and] hanged himself.
And when they persisted in asking him, straightening up he said to them, "The [one] of you without sin, let him throw the first stone at her!"
So he executed James the brother of John with a sword.
Having received such an order, {he} put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews forty [lashes] less one.
And I saw thrones, and they sat down on them, and authority to judge was granted to them. And [I saw] the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and did not receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand, and they came to life and reigned with Christ [for] a thousand years.