Prescribed capital punishment in the Old Testament |
|---|
| Category | Reference | Crime |
|---|
| Violent crimes |
Exodus 21:12 | fatally striking a man (intentionally) |
Exodus 21:14
Deuteronomy 19:11-13 | premeditated murder |
| Numbers 35:16-21 | murder |
| Numbers 35:31 | murder – payment to avoid execution prohibited |
| Exodus 21:15 | striking one’s parent |
Exodus 21:16
Deuteronomy 24:7 | kidnapping |
| Exodus 21:23 | death (aside from miscarriage) caused by fighting |
| Leviticus 24:17 | homicide |
| Domestic misconduct |
Exodus 21:15 | striking one’s parent |
Exodus 21:17
Leviticus 20:9 | insulting one’s parent |
| Leviticus 20:2b | giving one’s offspring to Molech |
| Deuteronomy 21:18-21 | being a disobedient and defiant son, a glutton and a drunkard |
| Undermining the law |
Deuteronomy 17:12-13 | disregarding judgment by a priest or magistrate |
| Deuteronomy 19:16-21 | false testimony accusing another of a capital crime |
| Undermining society |
Joshua 1:18 | disobeying military orders (shirking duty) |
| Joshua 6:17-21 | keeping proscribed (dedicated) loot
– extended in practice (7:24-25) to the culprit’s family |
| Reckless conduct | Exodus 21:29 | owning and failing to control an ox that gores someone to death and had gored before |
| Impiety |
Exodus 22:17 | sorcery |
| Leviticus 20:2b | giving one’s offspring to Molech |
| Leviticus 20:27 | having a ghost or familiar spirit |
| Leviticus 21:9 | harlotry by the daugher of a priest |
| Leviticus 24:15-16 | blasphemy |
Exodus 35:2
Numbers 15:32-36 | laboring on the sabbath |
| Deuteronomy 18:20 | false prophecy in the name of the Lord |
| Serving other gods |
Numbers 25:1-5 | worship of Baal-peor (god of the Moabites) |
| Deuteronomy 7:2-6 | prophecy or divination in the name of other gods |
Deuteronomy 7:7-19, 17,2-7 | worshipping other gods |
| Deuteronomy 18:20 | prophecy in the name of other gods |
| Encroachment on privileged religious duties |
Numbers 1:51 | on the encampment of the Levites, or on their setting up or taking down the tabernacle |
| Numbers 3:10 | on priestly duties of Aaron’s family |
| Numbers 3:38 | on the encampment of Aaron’s family (as priests) |
| Incest |
Leviticus 20:11 | incest with father’s wife |
| Leviticus 20:12 | incest with daughter-in-law |
| Leviticus 20:14 | marriage involving a man, a woman, and her daughter |
| Leviticus 20:20 | incest with uncle’s wife |
| Other sexual misconduct |
Exodus 22:18
Leviticus 20:15-16 | bestiality |
Leviticus 20:10
Deuteronomy 22:22 | adultery |
| Leviticus 20:13 | male homosexual intercourse |
| Leviticus 21:9 | harlotry by the daugher of a priest |
| Deuteronomy 22:20-21 | woman marrying under false pretenses of virginity |
| Deuteronomy 22:23-24 | engaged woman having sex with another man in the town (and presumably not crying for help) |
| man having sex with a woman engaged to another man |
| Deuteronomy 22:5 | rape of a woman engaged to another man |
| Other executions attributed to divine mandate |
2 Samuel 21:1-9 | Descendants of Saul handed over to Gibeonites for execution, to settle their demand to avenge Saul’s violation of a treaty. Although the executions and the targeting of descendants of the guilty king were demanded by the Gibeonites, David’s acquiescence is motivated by a famine, God’s punishment for national guilt. |
| I Kings 18:40 | Prophets of Baal slaughtered by edict of the prophet Elijah |
Old Testament prescriptions or precedents for
genocide, ethnic cleansing, or cultural annihilation |
|---|
| Book | Verses | Targeted people | Extent |
|---|
| Numbers | 31:7-18 | Midianites |
Adult males killed in battle. Male children and non-virgin women killed as captives |
| Deuteronomy |
2:32-34 | Amorites of Heshbon | Genocide |
| 3:3-7 | Amorites of Bashan | Genocide |
7:1-5,
22-24, 20:15-18 | Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites (inhabitants of the promised land) | Cultural annihilation commanded |
| 20:10-14 | towns far from Israelite territory that will not surrender | Slaughter of all adult males |
| 25:17-19 | Amalekites | Genocide commanded |
| Joshua |
6:17-21 | Jericho | Genocide |
| 8:2,24-26 | Ai | Genocide |
| 10:28-40 | Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir | Genocide |
| 11:10-11 | Hazor | Genocide |
| 11:16-20 | inhabitants of the hill country of Judah, the Negeb, Goshen, the Shephelah, the Arabah, and the hill country and coastal plain of Israel (except for Hivites in Gibeon) | Genocide |
| 11:21 | Anakites from Hebron, Debir, Anab, and the hill country of Judah and Israel | Genocide |
| Judges |
1:8 | Jerusalem | Genocide |
| 1:17 | Canaanites in Zephath | Genocide |
| 1:25 | Luz | Genocide (excepting a quisling and his family) |
| 18:27b-28 | Laish | Genocide |
| I Samuel | 15:2-3 | Amalekites | Genocide: said to have been completed, though Amalekites do appear in later stories |