page_title: Crime and punishment in the Torah
section_title: Special punishments
hierarchical_section_title: Crime and punishment in the Torah / Special punishments
caption_attribution_description: English: Mount Sodom, Israel, showing the so-called "Lot's Wife" pillar.
context_page_description: The Hebrew Bible is considered a holy text in most Abrahamic religions. It records a large number of events and laws that are endorsed or proscribed by the God of Israel. Judaism teaches that the Torah contains 613 commandments, many of which deal with crime and punishment, but only the Noahide Laws apply to humanity in general. Most Christian denominations have also adopted some of these directives, such as the Ten Commandments and Great Commandment, while a minority believes all Old Covenant laws have been abrogated.
context_section_description: Noah cursed Canaan to be a servant to his brother's servants and a servant to his fathers brothers. (see Curse of Ham)
  Lot's wife "became a pillar of salt" when she "looked back" when fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction.
  God killed Onan for depriving his sister-in-law of child by having sex with her with no intention of impregnating her as agreed. After Onan's brother Er died, his father Judah told him to fulfill his duty as a brother-in-law to Tamar, by giving her offspring. Centuries later, in the days of Moses, this practice was formulated into a law of a Levirate marriage, where the brother of the deceased would provide offspring to the childless widow   to preserve the family line. However, when Onan had sex with Tamar, he disregarded this principle when he withdrew before climax and spilled his semen on the ground, since any child born would not legally be considered his heir. (Genesis 38:3-10)
caption: Mount Sodom, Israel, showing a pillar referred to as "Lot's Wife", made of halite.
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