Ezra 6:11

The penalty.

Also I have made a decree The same words as in Ezra 6:8; Ezra 4:19.

whosoever shall alter See especially Daniel 6:15. The word -alter" here probably includes infringement of the decree as well as alteration of its terms.

let timber be pulled down R.V. let a beam be pulled out, more correctly. The beams of the man's own house should be the instruments of execution.

and being set up, let him be hanged thereon R.V. let him be lifted up and fastened thereon. The subject of both words is the malefactor. The punishment here referred to is probably that of impalement, to which allusion is frequently made in Assyrian and Persian inscriptions. It may indeed be a form of crucifixion, such as is also implied in Genesis 40:19 and Esther 2:23. The passages in Numbers 25:4; Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Joshua 8:29, where this frightful form of punishment is spoken of, seem to show that among the Israelites the victims were often first executed, and that the corpses were then hung upon a tree till nightfall. The Hebrew and Aramaic word for -lift up" which is used in a perfectly general sense for elevation of any sort, e.g. Psalms 145:14; Psalms 146:8, and Targum of Psalms 93:3; Jeremiah 3:2, was applied technically to execution by impalement or crucifixion, as in the Targum of Esther 7:10. This double meaning of the word may illustrate the Saviour's word -I, if I be lifted up from the earth" (John 12:32).

and let his house be made a dunghill for this See 2 Kings 10:27; Daniel 2:5; Daniel 3:29. A repulsive metaphor for shameful overthrow, cf. 1 Kings 14:10; Job 20:7; Zephaniah 1:17.