EXOD192 Jewish law opposes cremation, and regards it as an extreme lack of respect for the dead body. Although no explicit biblical law prohibits cremation, the prophet Amos, writing over 2,700 years ago, speaks of the punishment of the nation of Moab for its many sins, specifying that it had "burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime" Amos 2:1. The Torah takes burial and a gradual decomposition of the dead body for granted "For dust you are and to dust you shall return." Genesis 3:19