38 Bible Verses about Criminals

Then Cain said to his brother Abel, ["Let us go out into the field."] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

And he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and he killed his brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerub-Baal survived, because he hid himself.

Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and attack the priests!" So Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests himself, and on that day he killed eighty-five men who wore [the] linen ephod.

And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah. He had written in the letter, "Put Uriah in the front, in the face of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him so that he may be struck down and die." {When Joab was besieging} the city, he put Uriah toward the place which he knew {there were valiant warriors}.read more.
The men of the city came out and fought with Joab. Some from the army from the servants of David fell; Uriah the Hittite also died.

{About two full years later}, Absalom's shearers were in Baal Hazor, which [is] near Ephraim, and Absalom summoned all the sons of the king. Then Absalom went to the king and said, "Look, here [are] your servant's shearers; please let the king and his servants go with your servant. The king said to Absalom, "No my son, not all of us shall go, so that we not be a burden to you." And he urged him, but he [was] not willing to go, but he blessed him.read more.
So Absalom said, "But [will you] not let Amnon my brother go with us?" And the king said to him, "Why should he go with you?" But Absalom pressed him, so he sent Amnon with him and all of the sons of the king. Absalom commanded his servants, saying, "Please watch. At the moment the heart of Amnon [is] {tipsy} with wine, then I shall say to you, 'Strike Amnon down,' and you shall kill him! Don't be afraid. [Is] it not I myself who has commanded you? Be courageous and be {valiant!} So Absalom's servants did to Amnon just as Absalom commanded, and all the sons of the king got up, and each mounted his mule and fled.

Then Herod, [when he] saw that he had been deceived by the wise men, became very angry, and he sent [soldiers] [and] executed all the children in Bethlehem and in all the region [around] it from [the age of] two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined precisely from the wise men.

And the one named Barabbas was imprisoned with the rebels who had committed murder in the rebellion.

(who had been thrown in prison because of a certain insurrection that had taken place in the city, and [for] murder)

It happened {late one afternoon} [that] David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king's house, and he saw a woman bathing on her roof. Now the woman {was very beautiful}. David sent and inquired about the woman, and [someone] said, "[Is] this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house.read more.
The woman became pregnant, and she sent and told David, and she said, "I [am] pregnant."

And Yahweh said to me again, "Go, love a woman {who has a lover} and [is] committing adultery, just like the love of Yahweh [for] the children of Israel, but they [are] turning to other gods and love raisin cakes."

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father.

I saw among the spoil a beautiful robe from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and one bar of gold [that] weighed fifty shekels; I coveted them and took them. They [are] hidden in the ground inside my tent, and the silver [is] under it."

(Now he said this not because {he was concerned} about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money box, he used to steal what was put into [it].)

But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after gain, they took bribes, and they perverted justice.

Then the two men, {scoundrels}, came, sat opposite him, and the {scoundrels} witnessed against Naboth before the people, saying, "Naboth cursed God and the king," so they brought him outside of the city and stoned him with stones, and he died.

In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the army was encamping against Gibbethon which belonged to the Philistines. The encamping army heard that Zimri had conspired and moreover had killed the king, so they made Omri the commander of the army of Israel king over all Israel in the camp on that day. Then Omri went up and all Israel with him from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah.read more.
It happened that when Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went to the citadel fortress of the house of the king, and he burnt the house of the king over him with fire so that he died.

Now Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, so she prepared to destroy all of the offspring of the royal family. But Jehosheba the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah took Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, and she stole him from among the sons of the king who were being put to death, [putting] him and his nurse in the inner bedroom. So they hid him from the presence of Athaliah, and he was not killed. He remained with her in the temple of Yahweh, hidden for six years [while] Athaliah was reigning over the land.

Now [when] Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son [was] dead, she arose and murdered all the {royal descendants} of the house of Judah. But Jehosheba the daughter of the king took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and kidnapped him away from the sons of the king who were to be put to death. And she put him and his nurse in a private bedroom. So Jehosheba the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, because she was a sister of Ahaziah, hid him from before Athaliah so that she did not put him to death. And he was hidden with them in the house of God six years, but Athaliah reigned over the land.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that your days can be long on the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving you.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to the detestable things of the nations that Yahweh had driven out from the presence of the {Israelites}.

Then he went up from there [to] Bethel; as he [was] going up along the way, young boys came out from the city and mocked at him and said to him, "Go up, baldhead; go up, baldhead!" When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of Yahweh. Then two bears came out of the forest and mauled forty-two boys among them.

Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand sayings of understanding, to gain {insightful instruction}, righteousness and justice and equity,read more.
to give shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and purpose to the young,

But flee from youthful desires, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, [and] peace, in company with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.

"And {if a man commits a sin punishable by death}, and [so] he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his dead body shall not hang on the tree, but certainly you shall bury him on that day, for cursed by God [is] one that is [being] hung; so you shall not defile your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance."

He gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they executed them on the mountain in the presence of Yahweh, and the seven fell together. Now they were put to death in the days of the harvest, at the beginning of the harvest of barley.

Furthermore, I issue forth a decree that if any person violates this decree, let a beam be pulled out from his house and let him be impaled on it. And let his house be made a pile of rubble on [account of] this.

"If it happens [that] a young woman, a virgin, [is] engaged to a man, [and] a man finds her in the town and lies with her, then you shall bring out {both of them} to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones so that they shall die, the young woman because she did not cry out in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "And to the {Israelites} you shall say, '[If there is] {anyone} from the {Israelites} or from the alien who is dwelling in Israel, who gives {any of} his offspring to Molech, he must surely be put to death; the people of the land must stone him with stones.

Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his cattle and donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and everything that [was] his, and they brought them [to] the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, "Why did you bring us trouble? Yahweh will bring you trouble on this day." And all Israel stoned them [with] stones; and they burned them with fire [after] they stoned them with stones.

then it will happen if the guilty [one] {deserves beating}, then the judge shall make him lie, and he shall beat him {before him}, {according to} {the prescribed number of lashes proportionate to the offense}. He may beat him [with] forty lashes, and he shall not do more [than these], so that he [will] not beat more in addition to these many blows, and your countryman would be degraded before your eyes.

And [when they] had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs that are not permitted for us to accept or to practice, [because we] are Romans!" And the crowd joined in attacking them, and the chief magistrates tore off their clothing [and] gave orders to beat [them] with rods.read more.
And [after they] had inflicted many blows on them, they threw [them] into prison, giving orders to the jailer to guard them securely.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews forty [lashes] less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. A day and a night I have spent in the deep water.

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."

Anyone who did not come within three days, by decision of the officials and elders, all of his possessions would be devoted to God, and he himself would be excluded from the assembly of exiles.

And two other criminals were also led away to be executed with him. And when they came to the place that is called "The Skull," there they crucified him, and the criminals, the one on [his] right and the other on [his] left.

Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on [his] right and one on [his] left.

And with him they crucified two robbers, one on [his] right and one on [his] left.

But the other answered [and] rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, because you are undergoing the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving {what we deserve} [for] what we have done. But this man has done nothing wrong!"