Stoning
Stoning is the form of capital punishment most often named in the Mosaic law and most often described in the historical books. The community puts the offender outside the camp or city, and the people themselves carry out the sentence with stones — the act of execution and the act of public purgation are the same act.
The Sentence and Its Purpose
The repeated rationale for the sentence is the removal of evil from the covenant community. The rebellious son is to be stoned "so you will put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel will hear, and fear" (De 21:21). The presumptuous offender against priest or judge is to die "and you will put away the evil from Israel" (De 17:12). The same formula attaches to the stoning of the betrothed virgin proved guilty of depravity: "so you will put away the evil from the midst of you" (De 22:21).
The execution is collective. At the foot of Sinai, the boundary law forbids any human hand to touch the offender — beast or man — but requires that "he will surely be stoned, or shot through" so that "he will not live" (Ex 19:13). In the apostasy law, the witness's hand goes first: "your hand will be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people" (De 13:9). When the sentence is carried out, "all the men of his city will stone him to death with stones" (De 21:21); "the men of her city will stone her to death with stones" (De 22:21); "all the congregation brought him outside the camp, and stoned him to death with stones" (Nu 15:36); "all Israel stoned him with stones" (Jos 7:25).
Offenses Punishable by Stoning
The Sinai pericope sets the first instance: any beast or man that touches the holy mountain "will be stoned, or shot through" (Ex 19:13). Hebrews recalls the same ordinance — "If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned" (Heb 12:20).
The covenant code extends the sentence beyond Sinai. An ox with a known goring habit, having killed a man or woman, "will be stoned, and its owner also will be put to death" (Ex 21:29). Sabbath-breaking is a capital offense — "whoever does any work in it will be put to death" (Ex 35:2) — and the case of the man gathering sticks shows the means: "all the congregation brought him outside the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Yahweh commanded Moses" (Nu 15:36).
Deuteronomy adds enticement to other gods, idolatry, and sexual depravity. The enticer is to be stoned "because he has sought to draw you away from [the Speech of] Yahweh your God" (De 13:10). The proven idolater, man or woman, is brought "to your gates" and stoned to death with stones (De 17:5). The betrothed virgin found guilty of "depravity in Israel, by whoring in her father's house" is stoned at the door of her father's house (De 22:21). The stubborn and rebellious son is stoned to death by all the men of his city (De 21:21).
Instances of Stoning
The Sabbath-breaker. The man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath is brought outside the camp, and "all the congregation" stone him to death "as Yahweh commanded Moses" (Nu 15:36).
Achan. When Achan's theft from the devoted things is discovered, Joshua pronounces, "Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and heaped stones upon them" (Jos 7:25). The execution combines stoning, burning, and a heap of stones over the bodies as a visible memorial.
Naboth. Naboth is killed by judicial stoning manufactured by false witnesses: "the base fellows bore witness against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth cursed God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him to death with stones" (1Ki 21:13). The sentence follows the procedure of the law — taken outside the city, executed by the community — but the indictment is fabricated.
Stoning Endured by the Faithful
Hebrews places stoning at the head of the sufferings of the witnesses: "they were stoned, they were sawn apart, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated" (Heb 11:37).
Paul lists stoning among the trials of his apostolic labor: "Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep" (2Co 11:25).