Galatians 3:13

The Law pronounced a blessing and a curse; but since it made no allowance for human infirmity, the blessing proved barren in result; while the curse, which invoked the just wrath of an offended God for the punishment of the guilty, proved, on the contrary, fruitful in condemnation.

From this hopeless state of just condemnation Christ delivered us by revealing the infinite mercy of an Almighty Father, and so reviving hope and thankful love in the heart of the condemned sinner by faith in His love. ἐξηγόρασεν. The figure of a ransom, which this word conveys, is doubly appropriate in this connection. Men needed a ransom, for the Law had left them prisoners under sentence of death, and Christ had Himself to pay the price. He had to become a man like His brethren save in sin, and to endure the penalty denounced on malefactors and hang on the accursed cross, as if He had been guilty like them. γενόμενος κατάρα. Hebrew thought tended to identify the man on whom a curse was laid with the curse, as it identified the sin-offering with the sin, calling it ἁμαρτία (Leviticus 4:21-25). Hence the scapegoat was regarded as utterly unclean by reason of the sins laid upon it. Ἐπικατάρατος … This passage is quoted from Deuteronomy 21:23 with one significant alteration. In the original the criminal executed under sentence of the Law is pronounced κεκαταραμένος ὑπὸ Θεοῦ, so that the Law is affirmed to be the voice of God, carrying with it the fulness of divine sanction. But here the words ὑπὸ Θεοῦ are omitted, inasmuch as the new revelation of God's mercy in Christ has superseded for Christians the previous condemnation of the Law.

The original passage refers to criminals executed under the Jewish Law, and commands the speedy burial of their dead bodies before sunset in opposition to the vindictive practices prevailing in Palestine among the surrounding nations of nailing up unburied bodies in public places (cf. 1 Samuel 31:10; 2 Samuel 21:10). It made, of course, no reference to crucifixion, which was a Roman mode of execution, not a Jewish.