4. Scourging with thorns is mentioned (Judg. viii, 16). Reference to the scourge with scorpions, i. e. a whip or scourge armed with knots or thorns, occurs in 1 Kings xii, 11. So in Latin, scorpio means a knotted or thorny switch. The stocks are mentioned (Jer. xx, 2); passing through fire (2 Sam. xii, 31); mutilation (Judg. i, 6; 2 Mace, vii, 4; and see 2 Sam. iv, 12); plucking out hair (Isa. 1, 6; Neh. xiii, 25); in later times, imprisonment, and confiscation or exile (Ezra vii, 26 ; Jer. xxxvii, 15 ; xxxviii, 6 ; Acts iv, 3 ; v, 18 ; xii, 4). Imprisonment, not as a punishment, but custody till the royal pleasure was known, appears among the Egyptians (Gen. xxxix, 20, 21). Moses adopted it for like purposes (Lev. xxvi, 12). It appears as a pun- ishment inflicted by the kings of Judah and Israel (1 Kings xxii, 27; 2 Chron. xvi, 10; Jer. xxxvii, 21); and during the Christian ajra, as in the instance of John (Matt, iv, 12) and Peter (Acts xii, 4). Murderers and debtors were also committed to prison, and the latter " tormented" till they paid (Matt, xviii, 30 ; Luke xxiii, 19). A common prison is mentioned (Acts v, 18); and also an inner prison, or dungeon, which was sometimes a pit (Jer. xxxviii, 6), in which were " stocks" (Jer. xx, 2; xxix, 26; Acts xvi, 24). Prisoners are alluded to
PUNISHMENT
■no
PUNISHMENT
(Job iii, 18), and Btocka (xiii, 27). Banishment was inflicted by the Romans on John (Kev. i, 9). As in earlier times imprisonment formed no part of the Jew- Hi system, the sentences were executed at once (see Esth. vii, 8 l": Selden, De Syn. ii, c. L3, p. 888). Be- fore death, a grain of frankincense in a cup of wine was given to the criminal to intoxicate him I ibid. 889). The command lor witnesses to cast the lir.-t stone shows that the duty of execution did not belong to any spe- cial officer (Deut. xvii, 7).
/'.i ( >f punishments, especially non-capital, inflict- ed by other nations we have the following notices: In Egypt, the power of life and death and imprisonment rested with the king, and to some extent also with of- ficers of high rank (Gen. ad, 3, 22 ; xlii, 20). Death might be commuted for slavery (xlii, 19; xliv, 9, 33). The law of retaliation was also in use in Egypl (Wil- kinson, . I ncu ni Egyptians, ii. 214, 215, 217). In Egj pt, and also in Babylon, the chief of the executioners, Rab- Tabbachim, was a great officer of state (Gen. xxxvii, 3<>: xxxix; xl; Jer. xxxix, 13 ; xli. 10; xliii, 6; lii, 15, 16; Dan. ii, 14; Mark vi, 27; Michaelis, Mos. Recht, iii, 412; Josephus, Ant. x, 8, 5). lie was sometimes a eu- nuch (Josephus, Ant. vii, 5, 4). See Cmkkktiiite.
Putting out the eyes of captives, and other cruelties, as Haying alive, burning, tearing out the tongue, etc., were practiced by Assyrian and Babylonian conquer- ors: and parallel instances of despotic cruelty are found in abundance in both ancient and modern times in Per- sian and other history. The execution of Hainan and the story of Daniel are pictures of summary Oriental procedure (2 Kings xxv, 7; Esth. vii, 9, 10; Jer. xxix, 22; Dan. iii, 0; vi, 7, 24 ; comp. Herod, vii, 39 ; ix, 112, 113; see Chardin, Voy. vi, 21, 118; Layard, Nineveh, ii, 369, 374, :!77; Nin. and Bab. p. 45G, 457). The duty of counting the numbers of the victims, which is there represented, agrees with the story of Jehu (2 Kings x, 7 |, and with one recorded of Shah Abbas Mirza, by Ker Porter (Travels, ii, 524, 525 ; sec also Burckhardt, Syria, p. 57 ; and Malcolm. Sketches of Persia, p. 17 |.
With the Romans, stripes and the stocks, irevreov- piyyov %v\ov, n* rvus and columbar, were in use, and imprisonment with a chain attached to a soldier. There were also the l!l»-nr custoilin in private houses (Acts xvi. 23; xxii, 21; xxviii, 16; comp. Xenoph. 11.11. iii. :;. 1 1 : Herod, ix, 37 ; Plautus, Rud. iii, 6, 30, 34, 38, 50; Aristot. Eq. [ed. Bekker] 1044; Josephus, Ant. xviii, 6, 7 ; xix,6,l; Sallust, Cat. 47).
Exposure to wild beasts appears to be mentioned by St. Paul (1 Cor.xv,32; 2 Tim. iv, 17), but not with any precision. The lion's den was a Babylonian punishment (Dan. vi), and is still customary in Fez and Morocco (see accounts of, by Hoesb c ii. p. 77).
PUNISHMENT, Fdture. The obvious fact that the Sufferings of the wicked in this life are not in proportion to their sins has led even the heathen of all ages to the belief in a state of retribution after death. The Scrip- tures abundantly confirm this position, s" that few in the present day deny its truth in some form. The only questions that arise arc those relating to its character and its duration. The former of these points has been discussed under Hell Punishments; the latter we will briefly consider here.
1. No one approaching the New Testament without
Lved opinions could get any other impression from its language on this subject than that the punish-
lo i the wicked in hell are to be everlasting, (for