“Punishment” From Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(pain). Capital punishment was by hanging (2 Sam. 21:6); stoning (Ex. 17:4; John 10:31); burning (Gen. 38:24); shooting (Ex. 19:13); the sword (1 Kings 2:25); drowning (Matt. 18:6); sawing (2 Sam. 12:31); crucifixion. The death penalty was inflicted for parental reviling, blasphemy, adultery, rape, idolatry, perjury. Secondary punishments were generally those of retaliation, an “eye for an eye,” etc. (Ex. 21:23-25; Deut. 19:18-21).
“Tribute” From Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(gift). A payment made as a token of submission, or for sake of peace, or in pursuance of treaty (Gen. 49:15). The head-tax of half a shekel paid annually by Jews for the support of the temple service (Ex. 30:13).
“Punishment” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
The law required that capital punishment should be inflicted for reviling a parent, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking, witchcraft, adultery, man-stealing, idolatry, murder, etc. Capital punishment was by stoning (Deut. 13:10); burning (Lev. 20:14); the sword (Ex. 32:27); and hanging (Deut. 21:22-23). It appears that those who sinned at Baal-peor were first slain, and then hanged or impaled (Num. 25:4-5); the word is yaqa, and for hanging is used only here and in 2 Samuel 21:6,9,13, when the seven descendants of Saul were “hung up to the Lord,” which may also signify being impaled. There is no record in scripture of crucifixion being practiced among the Jews. Capital punishment was at times carried out in ways not mentioned in the law: sawing asunder and cutting with harrows and axes (2 Sam. 12:31; Heb. 11:37); precipitation (2 Chron. 25:12; Luke 4:29).
For minor offenses there was flogging, which was restricted to forty stripes (Deut. 25:3). A whip with three thongs accounts for the “forty stripes less one” (2 Cor. 11:24). Also placing in the stocks (Jer. 20:2-3). In other cases the punishment was according to the offense: “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Exod. 21:24-25). Imprisonment for definite periods was not customary as a punishment, though persons were imprisoned (Gen. 39:20; 2 Kings 25:27; Jer. 37:4, 18). Punishment was needed in the government of the nation of Israel, as it is in any nation now. God’s four direct punishments were “the sword, the famine, the noisome beast, and the pestilence” (Ezek. 14:21).
The Lord, referring to the law of an individual demanding an eye for an eye, enjoined forgiveness of personal wrongs; but this in no way interferes with civil government. Christians are exhorted to obey the ordained powers, pay tribute, etc.
“Tribute” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
Various Hebrew words are thus represented, but the signification in general is that which one nation or people paid to another, either in money or kind (2 Kings 3:4), in order to be left in peaceable possession. Some of the Canaanites were not driven out of the land, but they paid tribute to the Israelites, and Solomon put others under tribute (Josh. 17:13; 2 Chron. 8:7-8). Afterward, because of their sin, Israel had to pay tribute to Assyria, Egypt, &c., and in the New Testament the Jews paid tribute to the Romans in the shape of taxes (Luke 20:22). These were farmed, which led to abuses: (compare Luke 3:12-13).
The word “tribute” is used in the AV in another signification, as when the Jews asked Peter if his teacher paid “tribute.” Here the word is διδραχμον (double drachma), and signifies the sum each Jew paid to the temple. It was about 15d. The fish Peter caught had in its mouth a stater of the value of about 2S. 6d., which paid for the Lord and for Peter (Matt. 17:24-27). The Lord refers to what the kings of the earth did in ordinary tribute, in order to show that Himself and Peter as sons of the King of the temple could have claimed exemption, though they did not (compare Matt. 21:13). The institution of this yearly payment apparently began in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It is introduced with the words, “We made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God” (Neh. 10:32). It was so far a voluntary arrangement.
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
KJV Usage:
punishment, tribute