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BANISH, BANISHMENT
Exclusion of a person from a country or group as a form of punishment.
“Banishment” or a similar word is used in the Bible to describe God’s judgment on Adam and Eve (Gn 3:23-24) and on Cain (4:9-14), Absalom’s exile from his father David (2 Sm 13:37-39; 14:13-14), and Israel’s exile from the Promised Land (Dt 30:1; Is 11:12; Jer 16:15; Ez 4:13). During the exile, it was included in a list of punishments for those who disobeyed God or the Persian king Artaxerxes (Ezr 7:26).
The Mosaic law specified that an Israelite should be “cut off” from the people of God for various offenses, such as failure to circumcise a male child (Gn 17:12, 14), eating leavened bread during Passover (Ex 12:15), making an unholy animal sacrifice (Lv 17:1-4), eating blood (v 10), sinning deliberately (Nm 15:30-31), or failing to undergo ceremonial cleansing after contact with a dead body (19:11-20). The term “cut off” probably meant exclusion from the social and religious life of the community (cf. Jn 9:18-23, 34). After the exile, when the whole nation of Israel had been “banished,” disinheritance and permanent excommunication from God’s people were made official punishments (Ezr 10:7-8). The Romans, like other conquerors before them, practiced deportation in various forms. Controversy among the Jews led to the banishment of Jews from Rome under Emperor Claudius (Acts 18:2). The author of Revelation was banished to the island of Patmos during Roman persecution (Rv 1:9). More severe forms of banishment included permanent exclusion from an area, loss of citizenship, and confiscation of all goods and property.
See also Diaspora of the Jews.