PRISON

A place of confinement for one being held for trial or for one found guilty of lawbreaking. Various original-language expressions referring to a prison, or jail, have the following meanings: “house of roundness” (Ge 39:20; compare ftn), “house of the cistern” (Ex 12:29, ftn), “house of detention” (1Ki 22:27), “house of custody” (Ge 42:19; Jer 52:11), “house of the prisoners or those bound” (Jg 16:21; Ec 4:14), “house of the stocks” (2Ch 16:10), “place of bonds” (Mt 11:2), “place of guarding” (Mt 14:10), and “place of custody or observation” (Ac 5:18).

The Mosaic Law did not provide for prisons as a form of punishment. Since justice was to be executed swiftly (Jos 7:20, 22-25), only in cases requiring divine clarification do we read in the Pentateuch of individuals being committed into custody. (Le 24:12; Nu 15:34)