Any utterance showing contempt for God or profaning the Divine Name.

The Third Commandment explicitly forbids “taking the Lord's Name in vain” and biblical law, which made it an offence to “revile God”, inflicted the penalty of death by stoning on one who had “cursed” and “blasphemed” in this way.

Coupled with the prohibition of blasphemy was the admonition not to curse a legitimate ruler of Israel. “You shall not revile God, nor curse the ruler of your people”.

The rabbis made the prohibition of blasphemy incumbent on all mankind as one of the Noachide Laws. By Mishnaic times, only a flagrant profanation of the Tetragrammaton - - God's “ineffable Name” -- incurred the death penalty.

A person guilty of a profane utterance involving any other Divine Name was sentenced to flogging. The rule demanding two witnesses of the crime often rendered proof of the offence difficult. Consideration was also shown for the repentant blasphemer. As biblical sources already indicate, the solemn Rending of Garments became a practice observed by anyone who heard God's Name desecrated in public. With the decline of Jewish legal autonomy, the original punishment for blasphemy was commuted to Cherem (Excommunication).