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Topic:
Thoughts And Things Of The Bible -- Adultery
(Exodus 20:14) The parties to this crime, according
to Jewish law, were a married woman and a man who was not her husband.
The Mosaic penalty was that both the guilty parties should be stoned,
and it applied as well to the betrothed as to the married woman,
provided she was free. (22:22-24) A bondwoman so offending was to be
scourged, and the man was to make a trespass offering. (Leviticus
19:20-22) At a later time, and when owing, to Gentile example, the
marriage tie became a looser bond of union, public feeling in regard to
adultery changed, and the penalty of death was seldom or never
inflicted. The famous trial by the waters of jealousy, (Numbers 5:11-29)
was probably an ancient custom, which Moses found deeply seated--(But
this ordeal was wholly in favor of the innocent, and exactly opposite to
most ordeals. For the water which the accused drank was perfectly
harmless, and only by a miracle could it produce a bad effect; while in
most ordeals the accused must suffer what naturally produces death, and
be proved innocent only by a miracle. Symbolically adultery is used to
express unfaithfulness to covenant vows to God, who is represented as
the husband of his people.)
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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