1. .i>- (in 2 S 21>- [Kcre), Dt 28««, Hos II' (?) n^t), ' to hang up' anything, e.g. the earth .lob 26', the shields on the tower of f)avid Ca 4'', the harps of the exiles in Babylon Ps 137- ; cspc'ciallj' of the hanging up of a dead body, in Gn 40''-'- --41" of the chief baker, who was probably first beheaded and then had his body impaled as an a<;gravation of tlie punishment, see Dillm. ad loc. ; in 2 S 4'- of the murderers of Ishbosheth, whose bodies, after their hands and feet had been cut off, were hung up by David beside the pool in Hebron ; in 2 S 2r" of the bodies of Saul and Jonathan, which were I'ung up by the Philistines at Beth-shan. The fuller expression '(hang) upon a tree' (fr'^t') occurs in Gn 40'", Dt 21", Jos 8-» 10-«"», Est 2=3 (in which last passage it is possible that impaling of the dead bodies is meant ; cf. Herod, iii. 125, i.\. 78 ; Plutarch, Artax. 17, Timol. 22; Justin, xxi. 4). The Deuteronomic code regulated the Jewish practice (cf. Philo, de Spec. Leg. § 28) as follows : — ' If a man have committed a sin worthy of death and he be put to death, and [after his death] thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt surely bury him the .same day, for he that is hanged is accursed of God (O'n?*? ri?rP> LXX KeKarTjpafievos vird Osov, Aq. Theod. Kurdpa BcoO, not 'a curse, i.e. reproach, in- sult to God,' as one school of Jewi.sh interpreters understood it), that thou defile not thy land which the LoKU thy God givetli thee for an inheritance ' (Dt 21-"-'-, where see Driver's note). This prescrip- tion is noted as having been carried out in the case even of the kings executed by Joshua (Jos 8^ 10"). The requisite publicity has been attained by sunset and the land has been cleansed from ihe defilement affecting it. (On 'exposure' of this kind and its religious meaning see W. R. Smith, BH^ 351 n.). The exposure of the bodies of Saul's sons (2 S 21'"') day after day was either ex-
ception.al, or reflect.s the practice of an age t «at was a stranger to the mildness of the Deuteronotiic code (cf Bcnzinger, Ileb. Arrli. 333).
The LXX equivalent of .1^7 is Kpcfiivw/u, which appears also in the NT in' Lk 23*-', Ac 5** 10^', Gal 3", the only difference from OT u.safje being that it is used in all these pas,sages of the lianging of a living body upon a cross. The language of Dt 21'-^, althoufjh it had of course no direct refer- ence to crucifixion, could readily be transferred to it, and evidently wa.s so transferred by the Jews, as we can gather from Gal 3". It was the hanging up, not the death, that brought disgrace upon the sutl'crer, and the epithet Tdli'ii ("s^? 'the hung'), derived from Dt 21^, is frequently applied in con- tempt to Jesus by the later Jews. See the very instructive note of Lightfoot, Galatianifi, 152"-.
The word n^i? is almost certainly used of ' hanging' as a mode of execution in Est 5" 6* 7'"- 8' 9"- "■ '■" (possilily also in 2^). The EV evidently under- stands it in the modem sense, for both AV and RV give for [•;: gallows (in the text, althouirh they have ' tree ' in the margin). The ' gallows whicli was destined by Hainan for Mordecai, but was used for his own execution and that of his sons, is said to have been fifty cubits high. It seems most probable that impaling was the form of exe- cution adopted, and that the 'tree' was a stake for the purpose (cf. Haley, Esther, 122 11'.). It could lie lowered to receive its victim, who would then be raised upon it to that lofty height, that his doom and sufferings might arrest the public gaze.
The same word ("i*?-) is used in 2 S 18'" of Absa- lom, who was ' hanged in an oak,' i.e. cauglit by the neck in the fork of a branch. In La 5'- we read of princes being ' hanged up by their hand ' (I'rni Di;?). Lcilir would refer their to the enemy, that is to .'iay, the princes were hanged up by the hand of the Chaliheans. Others, taking their as = I heir oxvn, suggest that there may be a reference to crucifixion.
2. In Ezr. 6" the Aram. H-!:r: appears to refer to being fastened on the impaling stake, although the LXX understands it more mildly, TrXTfYhatrai, ' he shall be beaten.'
3. The only clear instances in the Bible of death by hanging, i.e. strangul.ation, are those of Ahitho- phel and Judas (2 S 17=^, Mt 27»), and both these were cases not of execution but of suicide. As a mode of execution it seems to have been only by the later Jews that strangling was adopted (see W. R. Smith, /i',S'= 419, and art. CniMES AND Punishments, p. .527"). In 2 S IT" the Ileb. term employed is pjn; (iiiiperf. Niph. of [P'-'\, the only other occurrences of this root being the Piel ptcp. p;rD used in Nail 2'- of the lion .strangling prey for his lionesses, and the noun pjnp in Job 7" ' My soul chooseth strangling'). 'The LXX has in 2 S d?rf jTi'ilei', in Nah OTr^^oTO, which is the word used also in Mt 27°.