Joshua 8:29

8:29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening. ¹  At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree. ²  They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day). ³ 

Numbers 25:4

God’s Punishment

25:4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders ⁴  of the people, and hang them up ⁵  before the Lord in broad daylight, ⁶  so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”

Deuteronomy 21:22-23

Disposition of a Criminal’s Remains

21:22 If a person commits a sin punishable by death and is executed, and you hang the corpse ⁷  on a tree, 21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury ⁸  him that same day, for the one who is left exposed ⁹  on a tree is cursed by God. ¹⁰  You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 21:2

21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 21:6

21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹²  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 21:9

21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before ¹⁴  the Lord.

Esther 2:23

2:23 The king then had the matter investigated and, finding it to be so, had the two conspirators ¹⁵  hanged on a gallows. ¹⁶  It was then recorded in the daily chronicles in the king’s presence.

Esther 7:9-10

7:9 Harbona, ¹⁷  one of the king’s eunuchs, said, “Indeed, there is the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke out in the king’s behalf. It stands near Haman’s home and is seventy-five feet ¹⁸  high.”

The king said, “Hang him on it!” 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.

Matthew 27:25

27:25 In ¹⁹  reply all the people said, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

Galatians 3:13

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ²⁰  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ²¹ 

[8:29]  ¹ tn Heb “on a tree until evening.” The words “leaving him exposed” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:29]  ² sn For the legal background of this action, see Deut 21:22-23.

[8:29]  ³ tn Heb “to this day.”

[25:4]  ⁴ sn The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.

[25:4]  ⁵ sn The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.

[25:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.

[21:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “him.”

[21:23]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”

[21:23]  ⁹ 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.”

[21:23]  ¹⁰ 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).

[21:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[21:6]  ¹² tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

[21:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).

[2:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they both were hanged.” The referent (the two eunuchs who conspired against the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ¹⁶ tn Or “on a pole”; KJV, ASV “on a tree.”

[7:9]  ¹⁷ sn Cf. 1:10, where Harbona is one of the seven eunuchs sent by the king to summon Queen Vashti to his banquet.

[7:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fifty cubits.” See the note on this expression in Esth 5:14.

[27:25]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “answering, all the people said.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[3:13]  ²⁰ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.