Land Corruption
Definition
Land corruption (or pollution or defilement | Hebrew: חָנֵף, ḥānep | LXX: μιαίνω, miainó) refers to the ontological effect on the land when egregious crimes are committed.
Explanation
Fundamental to the way YHWH created mankind, is man's relationship to the ground/land from which he was formed: 7 YHWH God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7WEB
When crimes are committed that violate this relationship, like the shedding of innocent blood, the land acts as a witness testifying to God (Gen. 4:10-11, Deut. 4:26). Consider the Noahic flood: 12 God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth. Genesis 6:12-13WEB
After judging the World, and reversing the curse[1], God then delegated this temporal judgement authority to mankind (Gen. 9:6) so as to prevent the necessity for His judgement:
21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear. Deuteronomy 21:21WEB
As these crimes continue, and man neglects his responsibility to punish evil, the land corruption increases to a point where YHWH is required to intervene, causing the land to "vomit out" (Lev. 18:24-30) the people (usually involving the death of many or most of them in the the process).
The Death Penalty Atonement
In the case of a (witnessed) egregious crime, the community affected by the crime must conduct a trial with at least two witnesses (Deut. 19:15), and put to death the guilty offender in accordance with God's mandatory (mot yumat) death penalties: 33 “‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it. Numbers 35:33WEB
This removes -- in a real, ontological way -- the corruption/pollution (caused by that crime) from the land of that particular community, preserving them from God's future temporal judgement (e.g. Sodom and Gomorrah, Amorites, Canaanites, Assyrians, Israel, Judah, etc.).
It's important to note that though the death penalty functions as a type of atonement for corrupting the land, it does not directly associate it with covenantal types of atonements (like levitical/priestly sacrifices). The covenantal sacrifices, which were unable to remove sin (Heb. 10:1-4), were fulfilled by Jesus' 'once for all' sacrifice (Heb. 10:10), redeeming certain persons (the ones "in him") from spiritual death. Jesus did not, however, sacrifice himself to atone for land-corruption, taking away the effect of their egregious crimes from it. Even after Jesus' death, the land of Judea was judged by God with temporal destruction (Fall of Jerusalem, A.D. 70). The God-given requirement for civil government to supervise all of the Biblical mandatory death penalties is coventally-transcendent (not part of any covenantal system), and therefore remains in the New Covenant era, able to preserve the community from future temporal destruction.
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