Verses 9-21
Cursing parents was also punishable by stoning.
Stoning ". . . was the usual punishment appointed in the law for cases in which death was inflicted . . ." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 2:426.]
Several sexual sins described here drew this penalty. The law banned the marital unions alluded to in Leviticus 20:14; Leviticus 20:17; Leviticus 20:21. Consequently these verses may be referring to common law marriages in which people lived together as husband and wife without a wedding ceremony. [Note: Wenham, The Book . . ., p. 280.] Burning the criminals (Leviticus 20:14) took place after their execution to heighten the general perception of the wickedness of their sin (cf. Genesis 38:24; Leviticus 21:9; Joshua 7:15; Joshua 7:25). It also symbolically cleansed the camp of defilement by removing their remains. [Note: Ross, p. 386.]
God would judge these sexual sins, not by withholding children from the guilty parties, but by regarding the children born of such unions as illegitimate. Such children would not benefit their families, which was a great calamity in Israel’s world (cf. 1 Chronicles 3:17-18; Jeremiah 22:30; Jeremiah 36:30). [Note: See ibid., p. 377; Hartley, pp. 328-29.]
"Whereas in certain respects OT penal law was much more lenient than that of neighboring contemporary cultures, it was more strict with regard to offenses against religion and family life." [Note: Wenham, The Book . . ., p. 179. This author wrote a helpful excursus on "Principles of Punishment in the Pentateuch," pp. 281-86.]
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