1 The kareth penalties include: failure to be circumcised (Gen 17:14), eating leavened bread during Passover (Exod 12:15, 19), unauthorized production of sacred incense (Exod 30:33) or sacred anointing oil (Exod 30:38), profaning the Sabbath (Exod 31:14), eating sacrificial meat while unclean (Lev 7:20–21), eating blood (Lev 7:27; 17:10; 17:14) or sacrificial fat (Lev 7:25), failing to slaughter meat as a sacrifice to YHWH (Lev 17:4, 9), eating leftover sacrificial meat (Lev 19:8), offering children to Molech (Lev 20:3–5), patronizing mediums and wizards (Lev 20:6), brother-sister incest (Lev 20:17), sex during menstruation (Lev 20:18), approaching sacred gifts while unclean (Lev 22:3), failure to afflict oneself during Yom Kippur (Lev 23:29), failure to keep the Passover without sufficient excuse (Num 9:13), sinning “with a high hand” (Num 15:30–31), and failure to cleanse oneself after contact with the dead (Num 19:13, 20).

2 G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology, New York 1962, Vol. 1, 264, note 182: “In H as well as P we still find ancient ban formulae which quite certainly were formerly practiced in cultic life in a very concrete form. ‘Cutting off (כרת) from the midst of the people of Israel’ is particularly frequently mentioned… The fate of a sacrally expelled person was terrible (Gen. IV.13f.), for as the bearer of a curse it was impossible for him to find shelter in another community; he was refused admission to all other groups, and, because at that time no one could dispense with relationships to supernatural powers, he was forced into the arms of the unlawful cults of magic.”

3 C. Westermann, Genesis 12–36: A Commentary, Minneapolis 1985, 266–67; W. Zimmerli, Die Eigenart der prophetischen Rede des Ezechiel, ZAW 66, 1954, 1–26; M. Pope, Excommunication, IDB Vol. 2, 184; P. Grelot, La Dernière Étape de la Rédaction Sacerdotale, VT 6 (1956), 174–89; G. Hasel, כרת, TDOT Vol. 7, 339–52; K. Elliger, Leviticus, HAT 4, Tübingen 1966, 101. The first full-fledged attempt to argue the theory that kareth is a form of punitive expulsion is the dissertation of G. T. Hobson, Cut Off From (One's) People: Punitive Expulsion in the Torah, St. Louis 2010.

4 D. Wold, The Meaning of the Biblical Penalty “Kareth”, Berkeley 1978; J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AncB 3, New York 1991, 457–60.

5 S. Lafont, Femmes, Droit, et Justice dans l'Antiquite orientale, OBO 165, Fribourg 1999, 184–185.

6 See the discussion of the Hittite concept of ḫurkel in H. Hoffner, Incest, Sodomy, and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East, in: H. Hoffner (ed.), Orient and Occident: Essays Presented to Cyrus Gordon on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, AOAT 22, Kevelaer – Neukirchen-Vluyn 1973, 81–90. Hoffner describes ḫurkel as a serious sin or taboo. According to Hoffner, every extant example of ḫurkel is sexual in nature.

7 Lafont, Femmes (above, n. 5), 185.

8 R. Westbrook, Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Law, Paris 1988, 5–7.

9 J. Finkelstein, The Ox That Gored, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 71/2, Philadelphia 1981, 40.

10 S. Loewenstamm, Comparative Studies in Biblical and Ancient Oriental Literatures, AOAT 204, Kevalaer – Neukirchen-Vluyn 1980, 146–153.

11 R. Westbrook, Cuneiform Law Codes and the Origins of Legislation, ZA 79, 1989, (201–222), 214–215, cites the edicts of Uru'inimgina of Lagaš, Ammi-ṣaduqa of Babylon, Telepinus of Hatti, and Horemheb of Egypt as examples of royal legislation by decree that supersedes written law codes.

12 One is forced to resort to these sources in Egypt, where no written law codes have been discovered to date.

13 E. Bergmann, Codex Hammurabi: Textus Primigenius, Rome 1953, 19, R 10, lines 67–72. Translation cited here is from M. Roth, COS, Vol. 2, 345. Transcription in H.-D. Viel, The Complete Code of Hammurabi, Munich 2005, Vol. 2, 566.

14 Hoffner, Incest (above, n. 6), 89.

15 The text-critical edition of this myth is H. Behrens, Enlil und Ninlil: Ein sumerischer Mythos aus Nippur, Studia Pohl: Series Maior, Rome 1978. Translation cited here is from T. Jacobson, Sumerian Mythology: A Review, JNES 5, 1946, 133.

16 T. Jacobsen, The Harps That Once: Sumerian Poetry in Translation, New Haven 1987, 174, note 18. For further evidence surrounding expulsion of an uzug4 from the community, See Hobson, Cut Off, Chapter Three.

17 O. Gurney, The Sultantepe Tablets (Continued): VII. The Myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal, AnSt 10, 1960, 122–23.

18 Transcription in J.-M. Durand, Archives Épistolaires de Mari I/1, Archives Royales de Mari XXVI, Paris 1988, 434, lines 19–22. Translation cited here is from M. Nissinen, Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East, SBL Writings from the Ancient World 12, Atlanta 2003, 38.

19 Lafont, Femmes (above, n. 5), 184.

20 Albrecht Götze, Old Babylonian Omen Texts, Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts 10, London – New Haven, 1947, cuneiform = plate 43, tablet 31, column ii, lines 52–54. Transcription and translation cited here is from CAD Ṭ: 61.

21 Cuneiform text in KUB XIII 2 ii 26–iii 35. Transcription in E. von Schuler, Hethitische Dienstanweisungen für höhere Hof- und Staatsbeamte, AfO Beih 10, Osnabrück 1967, 47. Translation by G. McMahon, COS, Vol. 1, 224.

22 Hoffner, Incest (above, n. 6), 89–90.

23 Hoffner, Incest (above, n. 6), 90.

24 Hoffner, Incest (above, n. 6), 85.

25 J. Nougayrol, Le Palais Royal d'Ugarit, Mission de Ras Shamra Tome VI, Part 2, Paris 1955, plate 74, lines 13–26. Transcription in Nougayrol, PRU Tome VI, Part 3, 97–98, lines 13–26. Translation by the present author.

26 S. Allam, Hieratische Ostraka und Papyri: Transkriptionen aus dem Nachlass von J. Černy, Tübingen 1973, 99, verso, lines 2–4, 8–10. Transcription by Karen Hobson. Translation in S. Allam, Hieratische Ostraka und Papyri aus der Ramessidenzeit, Tübingen, 1973, 301–302, no. 272.

27 H. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, Word Biblical Commentary 16, Waco 1995, 97.

28 The translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls used throughout this article, unless otherwise indicated, is J. Charlesworth, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts with English translations, Louisville 1993.

29 It is tempting to speculate whether Qumran read the hip'il ויסירו “they shall remove (= expel him)” in place of ויסרו in this passage.

30 J. Baumgarten, Qumran Cave 4 XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q 266–273), DJD 18, Oxford 1996, 164–65.

31 Transcription by Karen Hobson.

32 T. E. Peet, The Great Tomb-Robberies of the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty, Oxford 1930, repr. Hildesheim/New York 1977, 146–53 and plates 27–32.

33 W. C. Hayes, A Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom, Papyrus Brooklyn 35:1446, Brooklyn 1955, 53–54.

34 D. Lorton, The Treatment of Criminals in the Ancient Near East, Leiden 1977, 17.

35 Hayes, Papyrus, 53–54.

36 A. Gardiner, The Inscription of Mes: A Contribution to the Study of Egyptian Judicial Procedure, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Aegyptens 4/3, Hildesheim 1964, 9–10.

37 Lorton, Treatment of Criminals (above, n. 34), 6–7. The location is not specified, but may be Elephantine.

38 Stela in the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. Hieroglyphic text is published in K. Pflüger, The Edict of King Haremhab [sic], JNES 5, 1946, (260–76), 269–76. Translation is in Pflüger, Haremhab, 260–67.

39 Louvre C 256 (Maunier Stela). Hieroglyphic text is published in J. von Beckerath, Die ‘Stele der Verbannten’ im Museum des Louvre, RdE 20, 1968, (7–36), 11–12. Translation in J. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Chicago 1906–1907, repr. New York 1962, 4: 317–18.

40 Von Beckerath, Stele der Verbannten (above, n. 39), 26, note 23b; 34–35.

41 Catalogue de Textes Hittites 81. Transcription in H. Otten, Die Apologie Hattusilis III. Das Bild der Überlieferung, Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten, Heft 24, Wiesbaden 1981, 18. Translation by T. van den Hout, COS 1: 202.

42 B. Duhm, Das Buch Jeremia, Tübingen 1901, 290.

43 J. Bright, Jeremiah: A New Translation, AncB 21, Garden City 1965, 179.

44 Ibid.

45 The LXX reads φυλάσσομαι, “I am being guarded.” Aquila and Symmachus read συνέχομαι, “I am being restrained.” Origen reads conclusus sum, “I am restricted/confined.” The Vulgate reads clausus sum, “I am shut in.” The Peshitta reads kl', while the Targum reads kly, both implying physical restraint or incarceration.

46 H. Strack / P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, Munich 1956, Vol. 4/1, 309–13.