in surgery, the cutting out, or cutting off, any part of the body.

a scripture sense, means the cutting off of a person from his people, by way of punishment for some sin by him committed. The Jews, Selden informs us, reckon up 36 crimes, to which they pretend this punishment is due. The Rabbins reckon three kinds of excision; one, which destroys only the body; another, which destroys the soul only; and a third, which destroys both body and soul. The first kind of excision they pretend is an untimely death; the second is an utter extinction of the soul; and the third, a compound of the two former: thus, making the soul mortal or immortal, says Selden, according to the degrees of misbehaviour and wickedness of the people.