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Hanging

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 (Numbers 25:4; Deut. 21:22). (See 2 Sam. 21:6 for the practice of the Gibeonites.)

Hanging (as a curtain)

  1. Hebrew: masak

    1. before the entrance to the court of the tabernacle (Ex. 35:17)
    2. before the door of the tabernacle (26:36, 37)
    3. before the entrance to the most holy place, called "the veil of the covering" (35:12; 39:34), as the word properly means.

  2. Hebrew: 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; compare 26:16). These hangings were fastened to pillars.

  3. Hebrew: 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.

    4. Author: Matthew G. Easton, with minor editing by Paul S. Taylor.