Aligned sentence by sentence
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In his words, he never descends from there [the witness stand] again. And no witness is heard, whether to acquit or to convict, on account of the verse *And one witness shall not testify* (Numbers 35:30).
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The phrase *against a person, to die* refers to a single [witness]; it is as though Scripture said: a single witness shall not testify against a person, to die.
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For this reason one is not put to death unless the convicting [judges] exceed the acquitting [judges] by two beyond [the bare majority], as we explained in the chapter preceding this one.
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Mishnah 5
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All of this is clear, and we have already set out its underlying principle, namely that your inclination toward the favorable [verdict] proceeds upon the word of one, and toward the unfavorable upon the word of two beyond [the majority].
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*Chapter Six.*
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Mishnah 1
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The reason the place of stoning was set outside the court is so that no eagerness to carry out the execution should become apparent on the part of the judges, and so that, in the course of the procession to the place of execution, there might still be someone who knows grounds for his acquittal.
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The explanation of *sudarin* is: banners [signal-cloths]. As for his statement that there must be *substance in his words* — at that point [a fourth or fifth recall] *they bring him back even four or five times*; but on the first and second occasions he is brought back when he says *I have grounds to argue for my own acquittal* even if there was no substance in his words, for we say that out of the intensity of his fear he forgot his argument, and perhaps when he returns to the court and his mind settles he will recall his argument.
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Within the proclamation [of the herald] it is also stated: "So-and-so testified against him — namely the witnesses, who are So-and-so and So-and-so — that he committed such-and-such an act on such-and-such a day, at such-and-such an hour, in such-and-such a place," lest there be someone who can refute them as conspiratorial witnesses.
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And just as is done in stoning, so is done in all the modes of execution imposed by the court.
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Mishnah 2
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What requires that he make confession at a distance from the place of stoning is so that he not be seized with terror and his mind become agitated, leaving him unable to speak once he draws near to the place of execution.
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And know that the execution of Achan by Joshua (Joshua 7) was a temporary directive [horaat shaah], for our true Law does not require that the offender be put to death on the basis of his own admission, nor by lot, nor by the revelation of a prophet that he committed that act.
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And the law is not in accordance with Rabbi Judah.
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Mishnah 3
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The man is stripped from below the navel. What requires that he be stoned naked is that it is quicker for his death.
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And the law is not in accordance with Rabbi Judah.
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Mishnah 4
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Stoning, or pushing him down from an elevated place, are equivalent, for whether the stone falls upon him or he himself falls upon it, the pain is one and the same — do you not see [Scripture's] expression *he shall surely be stoned or shot through* (Exodus 19:13)?
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Mishnah 5
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Rabbi Eliezer adduces a proof from the verse *and he be put to death and you hang him* (Deuteronomy 21:22): all who are put to death are [also] hanged. But the Sages adduce a proof from the verse *for a curse of God is one hanged* (Deuteronomy 21:23) — only the blasphemer [is hanged]. And the idolater is likewise called a blasphemer, as in the verse *But the person who acts with a high hand, whether native-born or stranger, he reviles the Lord* (Numbers 15:30) — *he is a blasphemer*; and the interpretation has come down to us in the Sifrei that that entire passage was stated concerning idolatry.
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The crucifixion [hanging] of these women upon the gibbet [exposed], and the execution of all of them on a single day, was a temporary directive; and likewise their being hanged was a temporary directive. No legal ruling is to be derived from a temporary directive, as we laid down as a principle at the outset of this composition of ours.
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And the law is not in accordance with Rabbi Eliezer.
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Mishnah 6
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The Sages hold that hanging upon a tree rooted [in the ground] is not permitted, on account of God's word *you shall surely bury him* (Deuteronomy 21:23) — one who lacks nothing but burial, excluding this one, who lacks both cutting down and burial; for it is among the received principles that the timber upon which one is hanged is buried together with him. And likewise everything by means of which the court's executions are carried out is buried together with them.
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Rabbi Yose, too, says that the post fixed in the ground is not to be buried, since it lacks [the act of] digging out; for this reason he says [the gibbet must be made by] leaning [a beam] against a wall and not by being planted in the ground. But the Sages say: [the need for] digging is no consideration. And the law is in accordance with the Sages.
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Mishnah 7
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*What does the tongue [common usage] say?* — that is, what is a person accustomed to say when he wishes to chastise one who is grieved by some affliction that brings him no relief either in the doing of this deed or in the leaving of it undone. The saying that was current in the days of Rabbi Meir on this theme was: "My head is heavy upon me [literally: light upon me], my arm is heavy upon me."
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Just so does God say: in the execution of this offender there is a ruin of being, and in leaving it undone there is likewise no fitness. Now if this is said of one who deserves death, how much more so [is the grief] over the killing of the innocent.
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As for these two burial-grounds [for the executed], they are a law transmitted to Moses [at Sinai], having no scriptural proof-text and no attachment in the [scriptural] text, but resting solely upon the tradition.
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Mishnah 8
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*The relatives come* — when the sentence has been carried out against him and he has been put to death. And no mourning is undertaken for those executed by the court,