5:14 Haman’s 1 wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet 2 high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” 3
It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.
21:22 If a person commits a sin punishable by death and is executed, and you hang the corpse 6 on a tree, 21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury 7 him that same day, for the one who is left exposed 8 on a tree is cursed by God. 9 You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
1 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “fifty cubits.” Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a large supporting platform or a natural hill for visual effect, in which case the structure itself may have been considerably smaller. Cf. NCV “a seventy-five foot platform”; CEV “a tower built about seventy-five feet high.”
3 tn Or “joyful”; NRSV “in good spirits”; TEV “happy.”
4 tn Heb “Pharaoh will lift up your head from upon you.” Joseph repeats the same expression from the first interpretation (see v. 13), but with the added words “from upon you,” which allow the statement to have a more literal and ominous meaning – the baker will be decapitated.
5 tn Heb “had interpreted for them.”
6 tn Heb “him.”
7 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”
8 tn Heb “hung,” but this could convey the wrong image in English (hanging with a rope as a means of execution). Cf. NCV “anyone whose body is displayed on a tree.”
9 sn The idea behind the phrase cursed by God seems to be not that the person was impaled because he was cursed but that to leave him exposed there was to invite the curse of God upon the whole land. Why this would be so is not clear, though the rabbinic idea that even a criminal is created in the image of God may give some clue (thus J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 198). Paul cites this text (see Gal 3:13) to make the point that Christ, suspended from a cross, thereby took upon himself the curse associated with such a display of divine wrath and judgment (T. George, Galatians [NAC], 238-39).
10 tn Heb “on a tree until evening.” The words “leaving him exposed” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
11 sn For the legal background of this action, see Deut 21:22-23.
12 tn Heb “to this day.”