justifiable zeal (Deut. xix. 6.); and even if he found him without the limits of his asylum, and slew him, he was not punishable. (Numb. XXXV. 26, 27.) The taking of pecuniary compensation for murder was prohibited; but the mode of punishing murderers was undetermined; and indeed it appears to have been left in a great degree to the pleasure of the Goel. An exception, however, was made to the severity of the law in the case of a perfect slave (that is, one not of Hebrew descent) whether male or female. Although a man had struck any of his slaves, whether male or female, with a stick, so as to cause their death, unless that event took place immediately, and under his hand, he was not punished. If the slave survived one or two days, the master escaped with impunity it being considered that his death might not have proceeded from the beating, and that it was not a master's interest to kill his slaves, because, as Moses says (Exod. xx. 20, 21.), they are his money. If the slave died under his master's hand while beating him, or even during the same day, his death was to be avenged; but, in what manner Moses has not specified. Probably the Israelitish master was subjected only to an arbitrary punishment, regulated according to circumstances by the pleasure of the judge.

In order to increase an abhorrence of murder, and to deter them from the perpetration of so heinous a crime, when it had been committed by some person unknown, the city nearest to which the corpse was found was to be ascertained by mensuration : after which the elders or magistrates of that city were required to declare their utter ignorance of the affair in the very solemn manner prescribed in Deut. xxi. 1-9.

3. For other Corporal Injuries, of various kinds, different statutes were made, which show the humanity and wisdom of the Mosaic law. Thus, if a man injured another in a fray, he was obliged to pay the expenses of his cure, and of his bed, that is, the loss of his time arising from his confinement. (Exod. xxi. 18, 19.). By this admirable precept, most courts of justice still regulate their decisions in such cases. If a pregnant woman was hurt, in consequence of a fray between two individuals,-as posterity among the Jews was among the peculiar promises of their covenant,-in the event of her premature delivery, the author of the misfortune was obliged to give her husband such a pecuniary compensation as he might demand; the amount of which, if the offender thought it too high, was to be determined by the decision of arbiters. On the other hand, if either the woman or her child was hurt or maimed, the law of retaliation took its full effect, as stated in Exod. xxi. 22-25.-The law of retaliation also operated, if one man hurt another by either assaulting him openly, or by any insidious attack, whether the parties were both Israelites, or an Israelite and a foreigner. (Levit. xxiv. 19-22.) This equality of the law, however, did not extend to slaves: but if a master knocked out the eye or tooth of a slave, the latter received his freedom as a compensation for the injury he had sustained. (Exod. xxi. 26, 27.)

If this noble law did not teach the unmerciful slave-holder humanity, at least it taught him caution; as one rash blow might have deprived him of all right to the future services of his slave, and consequently self-interest would oblige him to be cautious and circumspect.

4. The crime, of which decency withholds the name, as nature abominates the idea, was punished with death (Levit. xviii. 22, 23. xx. 13. 15, 16.), as also was adultery (Levit. xx. 10.),-it should seem by stoning (Ezek. xvi. 38. 40. John viii. 7.), except in certain cases which are specified in Levit. xix. 20-22. Other crimes of lust, which were common among the Egyptians and Canaanites, are made capital by Moses. For a full examination of the wisdom of his laws on these subjects, the reader is referred to the Commentaries of Michaelis.1

V. In nothing, however, were the wisdom and equity of the Mosaic law more admirably displayed, than in the rigour with which CRIMES OF MALICE were punished. Those pests of society, malicious informers, were odious in the eye of that law (Levit. xix. 16-18.): and the publication of false reports, affecting the characters of others, is expressly prohibited in Exod. xxiii. 1.: though that statute does not annex any punishment to this crime. One exception, however, is made, which justly imposes a very severe punishment on the delinquent. See Deut. xxii. 13-19. All manner of false witness was prohibited even though it were to favour a poor man. (Exod. xx. 13. xxiii. 1-3.) But in the case of false testimony against an innocent man, the matter was ordered to be investigated with the utmost strictness, and, as a species of wickedness altogether extraordinary, to be brought before the highest tribunal, where the priests and the judges of the whole people sat in judgment: and, after conviction, the false witness was subjected to punishment, according to the law of retaliation, and beyond the possibility of reprieve so that he suffered the very same punishment which attended the crime of which he accused his innocent brother. (Deut. xix. 16-21.) No regulation can be more equitable than this, which must have operated as a powerful prevention of this crime. Some of those excellent laws, which are the glory and ornament of the British constitution, have been made on this very ground. Thus, in the 37 Edw. III. c. 18. it is enacted that all those who make suggestion, shall suffer the same penalty to which the other party would have been subject, if he were attainted, in case his suggestions be found evil. A similar law was made in the same reign. (38 Edw. III. c. 9.) By a law of the twelve tables, false witnesses were thrown down the Tarpeian rock. In short, false witnesses have been deservedly execrated by all nations, and in every age.

1 Vol. iv. pp. 163–203.

SECTION IV.

ON THE PUNISHMENTS MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES.

Design of Punishments.-Classification of Jewish Punishments.I. PUNISHMENTS, NOT CAPITAL.1. Scourging.-2. Retaliation. -3. Pecuniary fines.-4. Offerings in the nature of punishment.— 5. Imprisonment.-Oriental mode of treating prisoners.-6. Depriving them of sight.-7. Cutting or plucking off the hair.8. Excommunication. II. CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS.-1. Slaying with the sword.-2. Stoning-3. Decapitation.-4. Precipitation. -5. Drowning.-6. Bruising in a mortar.-7. Dichotomy, or cutting asunder.-8. Tuμtavioμos, or beating to death.-9. Exposing to wild beasts.-10. Burning to death.-11. Crucifixion. (1.) Prevalence of this mode of punishment among the antients.(2.) Ignominy of Crucifixion.-(3.) The circumstances of our Saviour's Crucifixion considered and illustrated.

THE end of punishment is expressed by Moses to be the deter

ment of others from the commission of crimes. His language is, that others may hear and fear, and may shun the commission of like crimes. (Deut. xvii. 13. xix. 20.) By the wise and humane enactments of this legislator, the parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents (Deut. xxiv. 16.), as was afterwards the case with the Chaldæans (Dan. vi. 24.), and also among the kings of Israel (1 Kings xxi. and 2 Kings ix. 26.), on charges of treason. Of the punishments mentioned in the sacred writers, some were inflicted by the Jews in common with other nations, and others were peculiar to themselves. They are usually divided into two classes, non-capital and capital.

I. The NON-CAPITAL or inferior PUNISHMENTS, which were inflicted for smaller offences, are eight in number, viz.

I. The most common corporal punishment of the antient Mosaic law was Scourging. (Lev. xix. 20. Deut. xxii. 18. xxv. 2, 3.) After the captivity it continued to be the usual punishment for transgressions of the law, so late indeed as the time of Josephus ; and the apostle tells us that he suffered it five times.2 (2 Cor. xi. 24.) In the time of our Saviour it was not confined to the judicial tribunals, but was also inflicted in the synagogues. (Matt. x. 17. xxiii. 34. Acts xxii, 19. xxvi. 11.) The penalty of scourging was inflicted by judicial sentence. The offender having been admonished to acknow1 Ant. Jud. lib. iv. c. 8. § 11.

2 Inflicting the punishment of whipping, the Jews sometimes, for notorious offences, tied sharp bones, pieces of lead, or thorns to the end of thongs, called by the Greeks agrpayadwλaç paoriyas, flagra taxillata; but in the Scriptures termed Scorpions. To these Rehoboam alludes in 1 Kings xii. 11.-Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. i. P. 414.

1

ledge his guilt, and the witnesses produced against him as in capital cases, the judges commanded him to be tied by the arms to a low pillar the culprit being stripped down to his waist, the executioner, who stood behind him upon a stone, inflicted the punishment both on the back and breast with thongs ordinarily made of ox's hide or leather. The number of stripes depended upon the enormity of the offence. According to the talmudical writers, while the executioner was discharging his office, the principal judge proclaimed these words with a loud voice :-If thou observest not all the words of this law, &c. then the Lord shall make thy plagues wonderful, &c. (Deut. xxvii. 58, 59.); adding, Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do (Deut. xxix. 9.); and concluding with these words of the Psalmist (lxxviii. 38.): -But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquities: which he was to repeat, if he had finished these verses before the full number of stripes was given. It was expressly enacted that no Jew should suffer more than forty stripes for any crime, though a less number might be inflicted. In order that the legal number might not be exceeded, the scourge consisted of three lashes or thongs: so that, at each blow, he received three stripes: consequently, when the full punishment was inflicted, the delinquent received only thirteen blows, that is, forty stripes save one; but if he were so weak, as to be on the point of fainting away, the judges would order the executioner to suspend his flagellation. Among the Romans, however, the number was not limited, but varied according to the crime of the malefactor and the discretion of the judge. It is highly probable that, when Pilate took Jesus and scourged him, he directed this Scourging to be unusually severe, that the sight of his lacerated body might move the Jews to compassionate the prisoner, and desist from opposing his release. This appears the more probable; as our Saviour was so enfeebled by this scourging, that he afterwards had not strength enough left, to enable him to drag his cross to Calvary. Among the Jews, the punishment of scourging involved no sort of ignominy, which could make the sufferer infamous or an object of reproach to his fellow citizens. It consisted merely in the physical sense of the pain.

2. Retaliation, or the returning of like for like, was the punishment inflicted for corporal injuries to another, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Exod. xxi. 24.) It appears, however, to have been rarely, if ever, strictly put in execution: but the injurious party was to give the injured person satisfaction. In this sense the raurora aa among the Greeks and the Lex Talionis among the Romans was understood; and an equivalent was accepted, the value of an eye, a tooth, &c. for the eye or tooth itself. It should seem that, in the time of Jesus Christ, the Jews had made this law (the execution of which belonged to the civil magistrate) a ground for authorising private resentments, and all the excesses 1 Cited by Dr. Lightfoot, Works, vol. i. p. 901. folio edit. 19

VOL. III.

committed by a vindictive spirit. Revenge was carried to the utmost extremity, and more evil returned than what had been received. On this account, our Saviour prohibited retaliation in his divine sermon on the mount. (Matt. vii. 38, 39.)

3. Restitution. Justice requires that those things which have been stolen or unlawfully taken from another should be restored to the party aggrieved, and that compensation should be made to him by the agressor. Accordingly, various fines or pecuniary payments were enacted by the Mosaic law; as,

(1.) FINES, (ONESH), strictly so called, went commonly to the injured party; and were of two kinds,-Fixed, that is, those of which the amount was determined by some statute, as for instance, that of Deut. xxii. 19. or xxii. 29.;-and Undetermined, or where the amount was left to the decision of the judges. (Exod. xxi. 22.)

(2.) Two-fold, four-fold, and even five-fold restitution of things stolen, and restitution of property unjustly retained, with twenty per cent. over and above. Thus, if a man killed a beast, he was to make it good, beast for beast. (Levit. xxiv. 18.)-If an ox pushed or gored another man's servant to death, his owner was bound to pay for the servant thirty shekels of silver. (Exod. xxi. 32.) -In the case of one man's ox pushing the ox of another man to death, as it would be very difficult to ascertain which of the two had been to blame for the quarrel, the two owners were obliged to bear the loss. The living ox was to be sold, and its price, together with the dead beast, was to be equally divided between them. If, however, one of the oxen had previously been notorious for pushing, and the owner had not taken care to confine him, in such case he was to give the loser another, and to take the dead ox himself. (Exod. xxi. 36.)-If a man dug a pit and did not cover it, or let an old pit remain open, and another man's beast fell into it, the owner of such pit was obliged to pay for the beast, and had it for the payment. (Exod. xxi. 23, 24.)—When a fire was kindled in the fields and did any damage, he who kindled it was to make the damage good. (Exod. xxii. 5.)1

(3.) Compensation, not commanded, but only allowed, by law, to be given to a person injured, that he might depart from his suit, and not insist on the legal punishment, whether corporal or capital. It is termed either (KOPheR), that is, Compensation, or w (PIDJON NePheSH), that is, Ranson of Life. In one case it is most expressly permitted (Exod. xxi. 30.); but it is prohibited in the case of murder and also in homicide. (Numb. xxxv. 31, 32.) The highest fine leviable by the law of Moses was one hundred shekels of silver, a great sum in those times, when the precious metals were

rare.

4. To this class of punishments may be referred the Sin and Trespass Offerings which were in the nature of punishments. They

1 Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. ii. pp. 365-367.