Anyone who attacks their father or mother is to be put to death. The severity of the penalty for attacking a parent reflects the foundational importance of the parent-child relationship in the covenant community. The same command that required honoring parents in Exodus 20:12 here applies the death penalty to physical violence against them. Proverbs 30:17 says the eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley. The dishonoring of parents is not merely a family matter but a covenant matter: the structure through which the covenant is transmitted from generation to generation is protected by the severity of this law.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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