Deuteronomy 21:23

_HIS BODY SHALL NOT REMAIN ALL NIGHT UPON THE TREE, BUT THOU SHALT IN ANY WISE BURY HIM THAT DAY; (FOR HE THAT IS HANGED IS ACCURSED OF GOD;) THAT THY LAND BE NOT DEFILED, WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE FOR AN INHERITANCE._ (For he that is hanged is accursed of God), х_ TAALUWY_ (H8518)] - suspended; the suspension refers to the carcass. A dead body being deemed an unclean thing which defiled the person who came into contact with it, it follows that the corpse of a criminal who has suffered an ignominious death by execution was, in Jewish phraseology, an abomination and a curse; and accordingly this term is actually applied to all violators of the divine law (Deuteronomy 27:15 to the end). [The Septuagint has: pas kekramenos epi xulou-everyone who hangeth on a tree (cf....

22,23 By the law of Moses, the touch of a dead body was defiling, therefore dead bodies must not be left hanging, as that would defile the land. There is one reason here which has reference to Christ; "He that is hanged is accursed of God;" that is, it is the highest degree of disgrace and reproach. Those who see a man thus hanging between heaven and earth, will conclude him abandoned of both, and unworthy of either. Moses, by the Spirit, uses this phrase of being accursed of God, when he means no more than being treated most disgracefully, that it might afterward be applied to the death of Christ, and might show that in it he underwent the curse of the law for us; which proves his love, and encourages to faith in him....

Verse Deuteronomy 21:23. _HIS BODY SHALL NOT REMAIN ALL NIGHT UPON THE TREE_] Its exposure for the space of _one day_ was judged sufficient. The law which required this answered all the ends of public justice, exposed the shame and infamy of the conduct, but did not put to torture the feelings of humanity by requiring a _perpetual_ exhibition of a human being, a slow prey to the most loathsome process of putrefaction. Did ever the spiking of the heads of state criminals prevent high treason? or the gibbeting of a thief or a murderer, prevent either murder or robbery? These questions may be safely answered in the negative; and the remains of the ancient barbarism which requires these disgusting and abominable exhibitions, and which are deplored by every feeling heart, should be banished with all possible speed. In the case given in the text, God considers the lan...

HE THAT IS HANGED IS ACCURSED OF GOD - i. e. “Bury him that is hanged out of the way before evening: his hanging body defiles the land; for God’s curse rests on it.” The curse of God is probably regarded as lying on the malefactor because, from the fact of his being hanged, be must have been guilty of a especially atrocious breach of God’s covenant. Such an offender could not remain on the face of the earth without defiling it (compare Leviticus 18:25, Leviticus 18:28; Numbers 35:34). Therefore after the penalty of his crime had been inflicted, and he had hung for a time as a public example, the holy land was to be at once and entirely delivered from his presence. See...

EXPOSITION EXPIATION OF UNCERTAIN MURDER. TREATMENT OF A CAPTIVE TAKEN TO WIFE. RIGHTS OF THE FIRSTBORN. A REBELLIOUS, REFRACTORY SON TO BE JUDGED AND PUNISHED. A MALEFACTOR WHO HAS BEEN HANGED TO BE BURIED ERE NIGHTFALL. One general idea, viz. the sacredness of human life and of personal rights, connects the laws in this chapter together, as well as connects them with the laws in the two preceding chapters....

HIS BODY SHALL NOT REMAIN ALL NIGHT UPON THE TREE,.... Which is to be understood of any and everyone that was hanged, and not of the rebellious son only; of whom Josephus l says, that he was to be stoned by the multitude without the city, and having remained a whole day for a spectacle unto all, was to be buried at night; and indeed such a person was not to remain hanging on the tree any part of the night, but to be taken down at sun setting; so the Targum of Jonathan, "ye shall bury him at sun setting;'' so says Maimonides m, they hang a man near the setting of the sun and loose him immediately, and if he continues they transgress a negative precept, "his body shall not remain", c. yea, according to him and to the Misnah n, and which agrees with the practice of the Jews to this day, not only those that were put to death by the sanhedrim, but whoever suffered his dead to remain unburie...

17. THE EXPIATION OF AN UNCERTAIN MURDER AND VARIOUS INSTRUCTIONS CHAPTER 21 _ 1. The expiation of an unknown murder (Deuteronomy 21:1)_ 2. Concerning a wife, who had been a prisoner of war (Deuteronomy 21:10) 3. The right of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:15) 4. The punishment of a rebellious son (Deuteronomy 21:18) 5. The burial of one who hanged on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:22) The expiation of an unknown murder seems to find an interesting applicati

ACCURSED. a curse. Compare Numbers 25:4; 2 Samuel 21:6. LAND. soil. Hebrew. _'adamah._...

_for_ THE THING HANGED _is accursed of God_ lit. _a curse of God_. This was the meaning of such exposure of the corpse after execution. God's wrath was heaped upon it; or it became doubly unclean and therefore terribly charged with infection to its surroundings. The LXX version of these words: κεκαταραμένος ὑπὸ θεοῦ πᾶς κρεμάμενος ἐπὶ ξύλου is quoted by Paul with a difference ἐπικατάρατος πᾶς ὁ κρεμάμενος ἐπὶ ξύλου in support of his statement that Christ was made a curse for us. _that thou defile not_ In D only here and Deuteronomy 24:4, but the idea, differently expressed, is frequent. _giveth thee for an inheritance_ Deuteronomy 15:4. see on Deuteronomy 4:21....

_VER._ 22, 23. _HE BE TO BE PUT TO DEATH, AND THOU HANG HIM ON A TREE_— Or, _He be put to death,_ &c. Calmet and Waterland. Hence it appears, that this punishment was not the same with the Roman crucifixion; for they hanged men alive upon the gibbet, and there let them expire; but this was only hanging up their dead bodies, (see 2 Samuel 4:12.) and exposing them to shame for a time; a day at the longest; for they were to be buried at night: _His body shall not remain all night upon the tree._ See Joshua 8:29; Joshua 10:26. He was to be buried, _that the land might not be defiled; i.e._ not by a natural, but a legal pollution, under which the whole country lay, as long as the body of a condemned