Talk:Rack (torture)

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.

It should also be mentioned that the rack was said to exist in the city of Sodom in the book of Jasher. The reference is Jasher 19:3-6 as follows:

"And by desire of their four judges the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had beds erected in the streets of the cities, and if a man came to these places they laid hold of him and brought him to one of their beds, and by force made him to lie in them.

"And as he lay down, three men would stand at his head and three at his feet, and measure him by the length of the bed, and if the man was less than the bed these six men would stretch him at each end, and when he cried out to them they would not answer him.

"And if he was longer than the bed they would draw together the two sides of the bed at each end, until the man had reached the gates of death.

"And if he continued to cry out to them, they would answer him, saying, Thus shall it be done to a man that cometh into our land."

This is from the website http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/jasher/19.htm . If the account is accurate then the rack has a history going back at least 4,000 years, and may have been invented in Sodom and Gomorrah.TurtleofXanth 03:25, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

The Book of Jasher is largely considered to be a medieval forgery. Also, the historical accuracy of the biblical story of "Sodom and Gommorah" is generally considered more myth than literal history. Peter G Werner 06:42, 24 March 2007 (UTC)