I was just reviewing the social laws promulgated in Exodus of the Old Testament when I came across this law as translated in The New American Bible: “You shall not let a sorceress live.”
I do not approve of killing women for non-serious crimes like witchcraft, but Yahweh was trying to convert these ancient Hebrews from paganism to monotheism, and it was an uphill struggle that eventually worked in Yahweh’s favor.
To kill of believers or at least practitioners in an older, rival denomination is one way to compel the people to follow the current, favored faith.
Now, if the pagan deity worshiped, male or female, was benign, then, for sure, a witch or warlock worshiping this deity, should not be suppressed, let alone put to death. It is immoral and extreme intolerant for the state to murder alternative believers.
Even if the pagan deity was evil, and many were, I still would not advocate execution, torture, or imprisonment to be inflicted upon such practitioners, but I would be in favor of the state nonviolently and publicly warning the public that such a deity and its followers are purely satanic and to be refuted and rejected completely.
Here is this same quote from the Holy Bible (KJV): “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
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