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Leviticus requires strict penalties for someone who swears to affirm a lie, following ancient Near Eastern traditions such as the Surpu tablets, which similarly describe how an unjust person swears falsely and distorts justice.
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Surpu II
Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations
Ancient Near East
disarranged the altar that had been prepared, made his god and his goddess angry with himself, standing up in the assembly, said inadequate words. Be it released, because he has sworn to facts of which he was ignorant, he has sworn after he took away something, he has sworn after he hid something, he has sworn in a case of a theft he committed, he has sworn in a capital case, he pointed his finger at a protecting deity, he has sworn by the protecting deity of father and mother, he has sworn by the protecting deity of elder brother and elder sister, he has sworn by the protecting deity of friend and companion, he has sworn by the protecting deity of god and king, he has sworn by the protecting deity of lord and lady;
Date: 1200 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Leviticus 6:3
Hebrew Bible
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “When a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by deceiving his fellow citizen in regard to something held in trust, or a pledge, or something stolen, or by extorting something from his fellow citizen, 3 or has found something lost and denies it and swears falsely concerning any one of the things that someone might do to sin— 4 when it happens that he sins and he is found guilty, then he must return whatever he had stolen, or whatever he had extorted, or the thing that he had held in trust, or the lost thing that he had found,
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Notes and References
"... The last case, brought forth in Leviticus 5:21–24 (6:1-4), involves swearing to a lie which is also described in Šurpu II 83–85: “he swore after he took (something), he swore after he hid (something), he swore concerning a theft he had committed.” In conclusion, it can be stated that the seven transgressions featured in Leviticus 4–5 are also addressed in Šurpu and related literature ..."
Cranz, Isabel
Atonement and Purification: Priestly and Assyro-Babylonian Perspectives on Sin and Its Consequences
(p. 47) Mohr Siebeck, 2017
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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