The Old Testament and punishment

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill People Who Don't Listen to Priests
Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

"Such evil must be purged from Israel." Note that God is giving this command specifically to Israel and not to the gentile nations. God has the right to punish those who are disobedient. The Law was read to the people frequently (Deuteronomy 31:11, Joshua 8:34, Nehemiah 8:18, 2 Kings 23:2), and no one could say they were ignorant of what it said. They as a people made a covenant (a covenant is like a contract) with God where they were told what what God was expecting of them. In contrast there would be great blessings should they choose to obey God. God is not just a God of punishment but also a God of reward.


Deuteronomy 5:1-3
Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully. "The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. "The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill Witches
You should not let a sorceress live. (Exodus 22:17 NAB)

Why was this? Let us look at context.

Leviticus 20:6
“If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

It is idolatry. It is the worship of a lie, and people pollute themselves doing this. Not only themselves but those who seek them out for advice or magic favors.

Leviticus 19:31
“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.


Though we don't have any legal grounds today as Christians to kill those those who practice these things since we are living under a different Covenant, sorcery today is as evil today as it was to Israel under the Old Covenant.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill Homosexuals
"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)

Remember here that there is a distinction between someone who feels attracted to their own gender and those who go so far as to have sex with someone of the same gender. You can choose to act on your feelings, or ignore them. God is saying they have forfeited their lives who choose to act on those feelings. Does God have the right to take back what belongs to Him? I would say yes. God breathed life into all of us, and made us in our mothers womb. Does God have the right to define what is right? I would say yes since He is the Creator.

Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Job 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill Fortunetellers
A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. (Leviticus 20:27 NAB)

"they have no one but themselves to blame for their death."

People have a conscience thought they will vehemently deny it. Even if you don't know the written Law it has been ingrained in you so you that you are without excuse.

Romans 2:14-16
…For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

The fortunetellers mentioned in Leviticus had even less of an excuse than people manage to muster up today. They had seen God work in their nations. They had heard the Law read out loud, and they knew the kind of relationship their nation had with God. They had no one to blame but themselves.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Death for Hitting Dad
Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)

Exodus 20:12
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Here's the curse and the blessing expressed in one sentence. If you honor your father and your mother (if God knitted you together in your mothers womb He gave you your parents) you will live long in the land. If not you will not live long in the land.

[Jesus on honoring your mother and father]  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Death for Cursing Parents
1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB)
2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

Cursing is not using foul language about your parents, but putting a curse on them. Trying to bring about evil in their life. Is that not evil? Even if they did evil to you, rewarding evil with evil is in essence evil.

1 Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Death for Adultery
If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)

Marriage has its origin in Adam and Eve (Mark 10:8.), and God's intention for us as human beings. God brings a man and a woman together on a very profound level through marriage. They become one flesh. Marriage is in a sense a covenant. A covenant between the man and the wife, and God.

Mark 10:9
What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Death for Fornication
A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9 NAB)

Fornication is sex outside of the limits God has put. It is sexual immorality and it stems from our sinful natures.

1 Corinthians 7:2
But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

The proper expression of human sexuality is only found in marriage.



Hebrews 13:4
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Death to Followers of Other Religions
Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)

These are laws given to Israel by Moses from God, not to control them, or because God is competing with multiple other real deities but because Israel needed to know what would happen if they abandons the living God they had chosen in favor of sticks and stones. God is life. He is the only source of life. Moving away from that we are moving away from life and we are doomed. He doesn't need worship. He is complete in Himself.


Acts 17:25
nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill Nonbelievers
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)

"They entered into." This was not an unwilling covenant made against their will. God did not impose Himself on them.

Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Joshua 22:5
But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."

They made a choice before 2 Chronicles:

Joshua 24:15-20
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God
Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)

"have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods." Here we are talking about an entire city fallen to pagan worship. Not just a couple of guys. God spares cities if there are just ten righteous in them.

Genesis 18:25
Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Read Abraham's plea for Sodom in Genesis 18.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night
But if this charge is true (that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)

These women had committed a crime against Israel and the covenant Israel had made with God. They had committed fornication when having been expressively told what God's standards for sexuality is. Had they gone unpunished God could chose to punish the nation as a whole since they as a nation by not punishing sin as instructed would be showing that they were in a state of rebellion against the God they had chosen to make a covenant with.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

"Kill Followers of Other Religions.
1) If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)

The verses are saying father, brother and daughter. These were all Israelite. They all were under the Covenant promises and obligations. If they sought to break that Covenant and make you break that Covenant they were doing evil. They would be attempting to lead you astray from God and from Life. It has an infectious quality to it also. The purging of those that did not want to be true to the covenant was very necessary not only to make sure that Israel was not lead astray but also to create an environment where it was possible for the Messiah to be born. Jesus could not have been born in a pagan Israel since He was required to be obedient to God by walking perfectly. When nations other than Israel were punished, and I am not attesting that they were it was only when the sins they had committed accumulated to such a size that God could not stand it anymore, and to prevent them from spreading their sins to their neighbors God intervened.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Kill Followers of Other Religions.
2) Suppose a man or woman among you, in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, has done evil in the sight of the LORD your God and has violated the covenant by serving other gods or by worshiping the sun, the moon, or any of the forces of heaven, which I have strictly forbidden. When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then that man or woman must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NLT)

"one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you." The people of these towns were not foreigners but Israelites. If they were worshiping anyone but God they were in violation of the Covenant they had made with God. They were not randomly killed on hearsay, but it was investigated thoroughly whether or not it was true.  

[Garland-Green]

aj OwO

Death for Blasphemy
One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the LORD's name. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother's name was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They put the man in custody until the LORD's will in the matter should become clear. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard him to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who blaspheme God will suffer the consequences of their guilt and be punished. Anyone who blasphemes the LORD's name must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the LORD's name will surely die. (Leviticus 24:10-16 NLT)

This man was a part of the community. His mother was an Israelite and he would have been raised knowing what blasphemy entails. He would have known the punishment blasphemy required. "Say to the people of Israel."