The stoning-place was twice the height of a man, and this the criminal ascended.  One of the witnesses then pushed him from behind, and he tumbled down upon his chest.  He was then turned over upon his back:  if he was killed, the execution was complete; but if not quite dead, the second witness took a heavy stone and cast it upon his chest; and if this did not prove effectual, then the stoning was completed by all present joining in the act; as it is said (Deut. xvii. 7), “The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people.”

“Criminals who were stoned dead were afterward hanged.”  These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer; but the sages say none were hanged but the blasphemer and the idolater.  “They hanged a man with his face toward the people, but a woman with her face toward the gallows.”  These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer; but the sages say a man is hanged, but no woman is hanged....  How then did they hang the man?  A post was firmly fixed into the ground, from which an arm of wood projected, and they tied the hands of the corpse together and so suspended it.  Rabbi Yossi says, “The beam simply leaned against a wall, and so they hung up the body as butchers do an ox or a sheep, and it was soon afterward taken down again, for if it remained over night a prohibition of the law would have been thereby transgressed.”  For it is said (Deut. xxi. 23), “His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; for he that is hanged is accursed of God,” etc.  That is to say, people would ask why this one was hanged; and as the reply would needs be, “Because he blasphemed God,” this would lead to the use of God’s name under circumstances in which it would be blasphemed.

The sentence of burning was carried out thus:—­They fixed the criminal up to his knees in manure, and a hard cloth wrapped in a softer material was passed round his neck.  One of the witnesses, taking hold of this, pulled it one way, and another the other, until the criminal was forced to open his mouth; then a wick of lead was lighted and thrust into his mouth, the molten lead running down into his bowels and burning them.  Rabbi Yehudah asks, “If the criminal should die in their hands, how would that fulfill the commandment respecting burning?” But they forcibly open his mouth with a pair of tongues and the lighted wire (the molten lead) is thrust into his mouth, so that it goes down into his bowels and burns his inside.

The sentence of beheading was executed thus:—­They sometimes cut off the criminal’s head with a sword, as is done among the Romans.  But Rabbi Yehudah says this was degrading, and in some cases they placed the culprit’s head upon the block and struck it off with an ax.  Some one remarked to him that such a death is more degrading still.

The sentence of strangling was carried out thus:—­They fixed the criminal up to his knees in manure, and having twined a hard cloth within a soft one round his neck, one witness pulled one way and the other pulled in an opposite direction till life was extinct.