In biblical usage, hanging often refers to displaying an executed person’s body on a tree or stake as a public sign of disgrace. It can also describe suspended curtains or hangings used in the tabernacle.
Definition
Hanging can refer to suspending or displaying an executed body after death, rather than necessarily to death by hanging. It can also describe curtains, tapestries, or other suspended coverings used in the tabernacle and in idolatrous structures.
Biblical Usage
As a punishment, hanging commonly concerns the public display of a corpse after execution and marks disgrace. The Bible also describes hangings at the tabernacle entrances, around the court and holy place, and as coverings connected with the Asherah.
Historical Background
The supplied material says criminals were generally strangled or otherwise executed before their bodies were hung, while the “gallows” or “tree” may have been a stake used to impale and publicly raise the victim. Tabernacle hangings were fastened to pillars.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(as a punishment), a mark of infamy inflicted on the dead bodies of criminals (Deut. 21:23) rather than our modern mode of punishment. Criminals were first strangled and then hanged (Nu. 25:4; Deut. 21:22). (See 2 Sam. 21:6 for the practice of the Gibeonites.) Hanging (as a curtain). (1.) Heb. masak, (a) before the entrance to the court of the tabernacle (Ex. 35:17); (b) before the door of the tabernacle (26:36, 37); (c) before the entrance to the most holy place, called “the veil of the covering” (35:12; 39:34), as the word properly means. (2.) Heb. kelaim, tapestry covering the walls of the tabernacle (Ex. 27:9; 35:17; Num. 3:26) to the half of the height of the wall (Ex. 27:18; comp. 26:16). These hangings were fastened to pillars. (3.) Heb. bottim (2 Kings 23:7), “hangings for the grove” (R.V., “for the Asherah”); marg., instead of “hangings,” has “tents” or “houses.” Such curtained structures for idolatrous worship are also alluded to in Ezek. 16:16.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>hang'-ing (talah, "to hang up," "suspend," 2Sa 21:12; De 28:66; Job 26:7; Ps 137:2; So 4:4; Ho 11:7): Generally, where the word is used in connection with punishments, it appears to have reference to the hanging of the corpse after execution. We find but two clear instances of death by hanging, i.e. strangulation--those of Ahithophel and Judas ((2Sa 17:23; Mt 27:5), and both these were eases of suicide, not of execution. The foregoing Hebrew word is clearly used for "hanging" as a mode of execution in Es 5:14; 6:4; 7:9 ff; 8:7; 9:13,14,25; but probably the "gallows" or "tree" ('ets) was a stake for the purpose of impaling the victim. It could be lowered for this purpose, then raised "fifty cubits high" to arrest the public gaze. The Greek word used in Mt 27:5 is apagchesthai, "to strangle oneself." See HDB, article "Hanging," for an exhaustive discussion.</p><p>Frank E. Hirsch</p>
