Hanging

Hanging in the Old Testament primarily refers to two distinct practices: execution by hanging (or suspension after death), and the curtains or screens hung in the tabernacle. As a punishment, hanging in ancient Israel typically meant exposure of a body after death as a sign of God's curse and public disgrace—not execution by neck-breaking suspension as in later practice. Deuteronomy 21:22–23 legislates that a hanged man's body must be buried the same day because he that is hanged is accursed of God; the body must not defile the land. Gibeonites demanded that Saul's sons be hanged (2 Sam. 21:6), and Haman was hanged on his own gallows (Esth. 7:10).

The tabernacle curtains (Ex. 27:9; 35:17; 38:9; Num. 3:26) were screens of fine twisted linen hung on pillars to form the court of the tabernacle and to screen the entrance to the tabernacle proper. These hangings defined the sacred boundary between the ordinary and the holy precincts. Paul cites Deuteronomy 21:23 in Galatians 3:13 to argue that Christ became a curse for us by being hung on a tree—the ultimate identification with the accursed condition that brings redemption.