A verb meaning to fine, punish, or impose a financial or legal penalty. It describes the imposition of a judicial penalty — not necessarily imprisonment or death, but a formal sanction, typically monetary. It appears in legal codes regarding liability and injury.
Anash reflects the biblical insistence on justice as proportional and restorative. The Hebrew law carefully distinguished levels of culpability and prescribed appropriate penalties for different offenses. This is not primitive punishment but sophisticated moral reasoning: actions have consequences, communities must be protected, and the person wronged deserves restitution. The principle of proportional justice — neither too harsh nor too lenient — reflects God's own character as the perfectly just Judge who neither condemns the innocent nor acquits the guilty. The gospel reveals how God can be both just and justifier: the penalty falls on Christ, not on those who trust him.