And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.
Worthy to be beaten. In judicial sentences which awarded punishment short of capital, scourging was the most common form in which they were executed, and it was inflicted immediately on condemnation. The amount of stripes was of course proportioned to the nature or aggravations of the offence: an officer of justice laid hold of his garment and tore it until his breast and back were bared; and from the criminal being "caused to lie down," the Hebrew mode of inflicting them seems to have been precisely the same as the Egyptian bastinado, which was applied to the bared back of the culprit, who was stretched flat on the ground, his hands and feet being held by attendants; or more commonly, while the latter only were held, the hands were tied to a post a cubit and a half high, so that his body was a little inclined.
The Mosaic law, however, introduced two important restrictions-namely:
(1) That the punishment should be inflicted in presence of the judge, instead of being dealt with in private by some heartless official;
and
(2) That the maximum amount of it should be limited to 40 stripes, instead of being awarded according to the arbitrary will or passion of the magistrate, who, like Turkish or Chinese rulers, often apply the stick until they cause death or lameness for life.
Of what the scourge consisted at first, whether a single stick or a bundle of twigs, we are not informed; but in later times, when the Jews were exceedingly scrupulous in adhering to the letter of the law, and, for fear of miscalculation, were desirous of keeping within the prescribed limit, it was formed of three cords, terminating in leather thongs; and thirteen strokes of this counted thirty-nine (2 Corinthians 11:24). This punishment was commonly awarded for religious offences.