8. Crime and Punishment
Capital punishment is by far the most common form of punishment in the Bible, with stoning or burning the favored means of execution. Capital crimes include: murder, striking or cursing a parent, witchcraft, beastiality, sacrifice to another god, adultery, sex with your father's wife, sex with your daughter-in-law, men who have sex with men, refusing to obey a priest or judge, false prophecy, and failure to seek the Lord.People who must be stoned to death include: sabbath breakers, parents who sacrifice their children to Molech, wizards, people with familiar spirits, blasphemers, family and friends who try to get you to worship another god, people who worship another god, stubborn and rebellious sons, women who are not virgins on their wedding night, and women who are raped in the city and don't cry out loud enough (along with the rapist).
People who must be burned to death include: daughters of priests who play the whore, people who take the accursed thing (along with their families), and a man who marries his wife and her mother (burn all three).
Another common biblical punishment is to be "cut off." This is the punishment for being an uncircumcised male, eating leavened bread during the passover, making God's special perfume for your own purposes, eating blood, touching an unclean thing, eating leftover animal sacrifices, or having sex with a menstruating woman.
There are only a few other punishments in the Bible. Judges can have wicked people beat with forty lashes, there are various punishments for refusing to obey a king or the commandments, and a woman must have her hand cut off (without pity) if she touches the "secrets" of a man when trying to assist her husband in a fight.
There are also punishments for animals. Animals that have sex with people must be killed. And an ox that gores a person must be stoned to death.
If someone accidentally kills another person, the killer must be killed by the "revenger of blood" (the victim's nearest relative) -- unless the accidental killer can get to a city of refuge first. If so, he is safe, at least until the high priest dies. Or something like that.
There are two overall principles to Biblical justice: "an eye for an eye" and "thine eye shall not pity." These two rules produced the cruel and unusual punishments in the Biblical justice system.
- People who must:
- be killed
- be stoned to death
- be burned to death
- be cut off
- be beaten
- killed, banished, imprisoned, and/or have goods confiscated
- have their hand cut off
- be stoned to death
- Animals who must be:
- killed
- stoned to death
- Cities of Refuge
- The Revenger of Blood
- An eye for an eye
- Thine eye shall not pity
- The Revenger of Blood
(Numbered P and N links are to the positive and negative commandments on Maimonides's list.)