Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should, be stoned,.... Not in Leviticus 20:10; for though according to the law there, an adulteress, one that was a married woman, and so an adulterer, that was a married man, were to be put to death; yet the death was not stoning, but strangling; for it is a rule with the Jews g, that where death is simply mentioned (without restraining it to any particular kind) strangling is intended, and which rule they apply to this law: and accordingly in their Misna, or oral law, one that lies with another man's wife, is reckoned among those that are to be strangled h: Kimchi indeed says i, that adulteresses, according to the law, are to be stoned with stones; but then this must be understood of such as are betrothed, but not married; and such a person, Moses has commanded in the law, to be stoned,
Deuteronomy 22:23. And with this agree the traditions of the Jews k;
"a daughter of Israel must be stoned, who is ולא נשואה
ארוסה, "betrothed, but not married".''
And such an one we must believe this woman was; she was betrothed to a man, but not married to him, and therefore to be stoned: the Jews l have also a saying, that
"if all adulterers were punished with stoning, according to the law, the stones would be consumed; but they would not be consumed;''
adultery was so common with that people:
but what sayest thou? dost thou agree with Moses, or not?
g Maimon. Hilchot Issure Bia, c. 1. sect. 6. h Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 10. sect. 1. i In Ezek. xvi. 40. k T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 51. 2. l Apud Castell. Lex. Polyglott, col. 2180.