| Show CRIMINAL LAW OF MOSES IN further attempting to outline the criminal law of the mosaic dis dispensation it may be to remind tho the reader that these laws were never given us an a permanent calu obligatory on all nations and at all times the law was given as paul puts it to be a schoolmaster unto christ but after that faith to Is come we are no longer under a school schoolmaster master gal lit iii 24 25 the subject furnishes many instructive lessons as aa revealing both the social condition of the people at the time the laws were given and the peculiar means adopted by a divine providence for the education of that people for the acceptance of higher principles of truth but the real nature of the mosaic laws will not be fully understood until they are systematically classified the second part of the criminal law includes offenses committed by man against man disobedience to parents cursing or smiting alting su father or mother were forbidden under penalty of death by stoning atoning if a man have a stubborn and rebellious rebell ioas son which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and that when they have chast ened him will not hearken unto them then shall hall his fether father and his mother lay a hold of him and bring him out unto ze the elders of his city and unto the gate of his place and th chev 1 shall say unto the elders of his bis city th this our son is stubborn and rebellions he will not obey our voice he is in a glutton and a drunkard and all 0 the men of his city shall stone done him with tones stones that he die beut deut axi 18 21 everyone that euith his father or his mother shall be surely put to death y Y lev 9 to dishonor the magistrates was also forbidden but the punishment for this offense its is nowhere stated to ignore the decision of the supreme judges was punished by death as an quoted in a previous article dent avil 11 for murder in the first degree the penalty was death he that kelleth any man shall surely be put to death lev 17 the provision in case of manslaughter to in remarkable six cities were to be set apart as cities of refuge 01 the slayer layer who kelleth his neighbor ignorantly whom he habeth not in time past could flee to any of those cities and secure an impartial investigation if it was found that he had not contemplated to slay his victim he was to remain in the city till the death of the presiding high priest if he went outside the city before the death of this official he might be slain by the blood avenger but when the priest was dead he was at liberty numbers 9 29 for all corporal hurts or injuries to domesticated animals exact retaliation was required to vex a stranger or oppress him and to afflict widows and orphans was forbidden but the punishment for these offenses was to be inflicted by god permitting enemies to make war upon the people if thou afflict them in any anywise wise and ther they cry at all unto me I 1 will surely hear the their I 1 r cry and my wrath shall allx ax hot and I 1 will kill you with the sword ana and your wives shall be widows an and your our children fat fatherless herlea 11 ex xiii 24 25 A special provision refers to the bodies of slain pera ous when the slayer was unknown if one be found slain in the land which the lord thy god gives thee 0 then the elders andr anck thy jud judges shall come forth and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that thai is slain and the eldera of that city shall bring down a heifer unto a rough valley which is neither eared nor sown and shall strike off the heifers heffers hei fers neck there in the valley and the priests the sons of leaf shall come near and a all the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer that is be headed in the vallel valley and they shall answer and say our hands ands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it bemer be merciful 0 lord unto thy people israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto thy people ae of israels charge and the blood shall be forgiven them dent 1 8 violations of the seventh commandment were of various kinds the penalty for adultery was death by stoning and both the min man and the woman were to be put to death lev 10 criminal assault upon a betrothed woman brought death upon the offender if the crime had been committed in a city where people might have rescued the victim and she had bad neglected to call for her neighbors both offenders were to be put to death but had the crime been committed in the fields far away from other persons the victim was to be held not guilty if the victim was not betrothed the offender had to pay the father of the girl fifty shells of silver and marry her and he had bad no right to ever give her a letter of divorce deut beut 2229 22 29 the penalty of and of sodomy was death by stoning ex 19 lev 29 those that committed incest were to be burned to deat deaf lev 14 A man who committed fornication with a free maid was to marry her if he could obtain her fathers consent if not he had to pay the dowry of virgins 12 fifty shekels of silver ex 16 for the same offense committed with a slave the law prescribes a trespass offering for the roan inan the slave was to be scourged urged lev 2022 20 22 A priests daughter who became a fallen woman was to be burned to death lev axt 9 the penalties for stealing are not quite so rigid as some of those previously outlined if anyone stole human beings for the purpose of making slaves slaved of them he 1 was wag to be put to death if a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of israel and mabeth merchandise of him or delleth him then that thief shall die dent 7 he who had been convicted of having stolen animals or other property was to restore double he that stole an ox or a sheep and killed or sold the die animal had to restore five oxen for one ox and four for ne ex 1 this was the rule for all manner of trespasses whereby property was lost I 1 through the criminal carelessness of another and if the offender was too poor to restore the amount doubled as required he be was to be sold and to serve as a slave until the year of release ex 3 if anyone squandered prop property efty entrusted to his care or endeavored to conceal property which he had bad found and which was not his he be had to resto restore re the same and add thereto a fifth part and besides to bri bring dg a trespass offering as an atonement for his offense offe nae lev vi 17 1 7 if a thief was detected in the act of stealing and the owner of the property killed billed him the die sjay slater er was acquitted hut but if the thief were killed some time after the theft the killing was considered murder ex 8 animals that destroyed property were to be killed and the owner of the animals to make restitution for the loss ex 33 36 the offense of perjury has no special penalty attached to it by oath an accused appealed his cue case to god slid aud left it with him undoubtedly with the understanding that the penalty would be certain a and terrible if he was guilty of perjury when anybody was convicted of having born false testimony against another the penalty of the offense to which he be had falsely testified was to be inflicted on him deut beut 16 19 A man who slandered his wife was ti to to be publicly rebuked by theElder and sand to pay his father in law one hundred bundred shekels of silver he could not afterwards give her a letter of di divorce voice deut beut 13 19 these are the principal offenses with which the criminal law of moes deals there are others which relate to the feelings and to the desires of the human heart for this wonderful law code deals not only with the sets acts of men but also with the sources of their acts to hate is forbidden as well as to kill and to covet as well as to steal for instance thou not hate thy brother in thine heart lev 17 neither thou covet thy neighbors house his field or anything that in ia thy neighbors dent but offenses lenses of of this kind dp do nut not fall under the jurisdiction of of earthly courts and can therefore not properly be classified under this heading A very interesting division of the mosaic law remains to be considered the ceremonial law |
