48 Walter Jacob destroyed. We may be astonished by the constant use of the death penalty; justice was severe.
With the suspected adulteress(sotah), the trial by ordeal was as frightening, as the punishment could be death, at the husband’s discretion.!® In this case, we also have a public spectacle of a highly dramatic nature, as we learn especially from the tractate by that name in the Babylonian Talmud , which detailed the proceedings before the court.
Young women about to enter marriage were especially vulnerable to charges of non-virginity, so the punishment for a false accusation was severe and consisted of a fine of one hundred shekels, whipping, and the inability to ever divorce his wife. The same penalty was provided for someone who raped a girl who was not betrothed; if she was, the penalty was death, 1 strange to our ears indeed.
A system of precise retribution, aside from vengeance for murder, discussed earlier, was provided by the statements“An eye for an eye” which demanded monetary compensation through the courts.” A slave was given freedom if seriously injured by his master.!® These laws protected the perpetrator from personal vengeance and allowed the facts to be investigated. A harsh punishment, however, was decreed for a woman who sought to assist her husband during a fight by seizing the genitals of his opponent; her hand is cut off.”
Whipping was frequently invoked, although mentioned specifically only once, it seems to have been taken for granted as it was mentioned without a specific offense, but as a general punishment. It was considered disciplinary in nature. It seems to have been frequently used to discipline slaves.%
Some punishments were intended to make crime expensive, so the system of high fines in addition to restitution were invoked and should have made the potential thief think twice about his actions(seven fold or five fold for an ox, four fold for a sheep).! Even an innocent purchaser, who presumably did not investigate the source of his purchase sufficiently, paid a two fold penalty.” Theft voluntarily acknowledged brought restitution and the addition of a fifth of the value, plus a guilt offering.” Many laws dealt with the protection of property, although we should note that the notion of personal possession was limited by the laws of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee.?* The latter was theoretical, but the Book of Jubilees testified to a desire to follow it.