Gallows

How Nave’s arranged it

• Used for execution of criminalsEsther 2:23Esther 5:14Esther 6:4Esther 7:9Esther 7:10Esther 9:13Esther 9:25
• Reproach of being hanged uponGalatians 3:13
• See Punishment

The passages, in Bible order (8)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 8 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Esther 2:23

   After the report had been investigated and verified, both officials were hanged on the gallows. And all this was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king.

   ›Commentary on Esther 2:232 voices

   “Both hanged on a tree - i. e. “crucified” or “impaled” the ordinary punishment of rebels and traitors in Persia. The book of the chronicles - Ctesias drew his Persian history from them, and they are often glanced at by Herodotus.

   “He was not rewarded presently, but a book of remembrance was written. Thus with respect to those who serve Christ, though their recompence is adjourned till the resurrection of the just, yet an account is kept of their work of faith and labour of love, which God is not unrighteous to forget, Heb. vi.

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2. Esther 5:14

   His wife Zeresh and all his friends told him, “Have them build a gallows fifty cubits high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go to the banquet with the king and enjoy yourself.” The advice pleased Haman, and he had the gallows constructed.

   ›Commentary on Esther 5:141 voice

   “Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high - The word עץ ets, which we translate gallows, signifies simply wood, a tree, or pole; and this was to be seventy-five feet high, that he might suffer the greater ignominy, and be a more public spectacle. I believe impaling is here also meant. See the note, Est 2:23 (note).

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3. Esther 6:4

   “Who is in the court?” the king asked. Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared for him.

   ›Commentary on Esther 6:42 voices

   “Now Haman was come into the outward court--This was early in the morning. It is the invariable custom for kings in Eastern countries to transact business before the sun is hot, often in the open air, and so Haman was in all probability come officially to attend on his master.

   “Mordecai was also persecuted as Jesus was persecuted. Mordecai was persecuted by the wicked Haman; and Jesus was persecuted by the rebellious people. Mordecai by his prayer delivered his people from the hands of Haman; and Jesus by his prayer delivered his people from the hands of Satan. Mordecai was delivered from the hands of his persecutor; and Jesus was rescued from the hands of his persecutors.

   Everything gathered on Esther 6:4→

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4. Esther 7:9

   Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” “Hang him on it!” declared the king.

   ›Commentary on Esther 7:92 voices

   “And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king,.... One of the seven chamberlains, see Est 1:10, his name, with Josephus (y), is Sabouchadas. Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. This man, perhaps, had seen it there, when he went with others to fetch Haman to the banquet, Est 6:

   “The information he now volunteered, as well it may be from abhorrence of Haman's cold-blooded conspiracy as from sympathy with his amiable mistress, involved with her people in imminent peril.

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5. Esther 7:10

   So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

   ›Commentary on Esther 7:102 voices

   “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai--He has not been the only plotter of mischief whose feet have been taken in the net which they hid (Ps 9:15). But never was condemnation more just, and retribution more merited, than the execution of that gigantic criminal.

   “The enemies of God's church have often been thus taken in their own craftiness. In the morning Haman was designing himself for the robes and Mordecai for the gallows; but the tables are turned: Mordecai has the crown, Haman the cross. The Lord is known by such judgments.

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6. Esther 9:13

   Esther replied, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s edict, and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

   ›Commentary on Esther 9:132 voices

   “Let it, &c. - To kill their implacable enemies. For it is not improbable that the greatest and worst of them had hidden themselves for that day; after which, the commission granted to the Jews being expired, they confidently returned to their homes.

   “Thus the Jews smote all their enemies--The effect of the two antagonistic decrees was, in the meantime, to raise a fierce and bloody war between the Jews and their enemies throughout the Persian empire; but through the dread of Esther and Mordecai, the provincial governors universally favored their cause, so that their enemies fell in great numbers.

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7. Esther 9:25

   But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

   ›Commentary on Esther 9:251 voice

   “Very often people's evil schemes turn out differently than they had hoped and the trap they had placed to capture others ensnares them, as the Scripture confirms, "The wicked are ensnared in their traps. And whoever digs a pit will fall into it." Therefore also …

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8. Galatians 3:13

   Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

   ›Commentary on Galatians 3:132 voices

   “In order to redeem us from the curse of the law, Christ became a curse for us. This was demonstrated visibly when He hung on the cross.

   “The curse is the divine condemnation of sin which leads to death. To this curse we lay exposed; but Christ on his cross identified himself with the doom impending on sinners that, through his act, the curse passes away and we go free.

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