Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:22-23

Bird's-eye view

This brief and striking passage from the Deuteronomic law appears at first to be a simple instruction regarding public decency and the proper handling of an executed criminal's body. However, like so much of the Old Testament law, it is pregnant with a much deeper theological significance. It is a shadow, a type, a pointer to the very center of redemptive history. The Apostle Paul picks up this very text in Galatians 3:13 to explain the nature of Christ's atoning work. The central point is this: the man hanged on a tree is not just an object of public shame, but is under the formal, declared curse of God. The command to bury him before nightfall is not merely about sanitation or aesthetics; it is a ritual act to prevent the ceremonial defilement of the holy land, the inheritance God gave to Israel. This law, therefore, provides the Old Testament scaffolding for understanding how Jesus, in His crucifixion, became a curse for us, thereby redeeming us from the curse of the law. He was publicly displayed as one accursed by God, and His burial was necessary to cleanse the true land, His people, from the defilement of sin.

In short, this is a gospel text nestled in the civil code of ancient Israel. It establishes a visible, public symbol for the ultimate penalty of sin, which is to be cut off from God's presence and blessing. It demonstrates that the curse is so potent that it contaminates its surroundings. And in doing so, it prepares the people of God to understand the horrific glory of the cross, where the only truly innocent man in history would be publicly displayed under this very curse, absorbing it completely in order to remove it from His people forever.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

This passage is situated within a larger block of laws in Deuteronomy (chapters 19-26) that govern the civil and ceremonial life of Israel as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. The preceding verses deal with unresolved murder (the heifer ritual), and the surrounding laws address rules of warfare, family life, and social justice. This specific instruction about the hanged man is part of a section detailing how Israel is to maintain its corporate holiness before Yahweh. The land is a gift from God, an inheritance, and it must be kept clean from moral and ceremonial pollution. Bloodshed, idolatry, sexual immorality, and, as we see here, the lingering presence of a divine curse, all defile the land. This context underscores that sin has public, corporate, and even geographical consequences. The holiness of the people and the holiness of the land are inextricably linked under the old covenant. This particular law serves as a stark, visual reminder of the ultimate consequence of high-handed rebellion against God's law: not just death, but a public exhibition of being under God's anathema.

Key Issues

The Shape of the Gospel

It is impossible for a Christian to read this passage without immediately thinking of the cross of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul makes the connection explicit for us. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'" (Gal. 3:13). This is not Paul ripping a verse out of context; it is Paul revealing the ultimate context. The law in Deuteronomy was a picture, a foreshadowing. The reality, the substance, is Christ.

The entire sacrificial system taught that sin brings death, and that an innocent substitute could die in the place of the guilty. This specific law adds another layer. It shows us what the death of the ultimate lawbreaker looks like. It is a death of public shame, a death that visibly demonstrates the curse of God. When the Israelites saw a man hanging on a tree, they were to understand him as one formally excommunicated from the covenant people, bearing the full weight of divine displeasure. When we look at Christ hanging on the tree, we are to see the same thing, but with a glorious, substitutionary twist. He was not under the curse for His own sin, for He had none. He was there for ours. He became the accursed thing so that we, the truly accursed, might receive the blessing of Abraham. This Old Testament statute is a key that unlocks the deep meaning of the crucifixion.

Verse by Verse Commentary

22 “And if a man has committed a sin, the judgment of which is death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

The process begins with a sin worthy of death. This is not a minor infraction. Under the Mosaic law, this would include crimes like murder, idolatry, or incorrigible rebellion. The man is first tried, found guilty, and then executed. The hanging on a tree is a post-mortem event. It is not the means of execution, but rather a public display of the executed criminal. This was a practice of extreme ignominy, designed to be a potent deterrent. It was a declaration not just that the man was a criminal, but that his crime was so heinous as to warrant this ultimate public shaming. He was being made a spectacle, an object lesson for the entire community about the wages of high-handed sin.

23a his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day

The public display, however potent, was to be temporary. It could not last beyond sundown. There is a profound principle here. While the public declaration of the curse is necessary, the sign of that curse cannot be allowed to remain indefinitely in the midst of God's people. The shame has been displayed, the warning has been given, but now the object of the curse must be removed. This command for a same-day burial is an act of covenantal hygiene. Just as lepers were put outside the camp, this vessel of God's curse had to be put out of sight, under the earth. This foreshadows the burial of Christ. He endured the open shame of the cross for a number of hours, and then, before the Sabbath began at sundown, He was taken down and laid in a tomb. The curse was displayed, and then it was buried.

23b (because cursed of God is he who is hanged),

Here is the theological heart of the matter, the interpretive key provided within the text itself. The reason for the urgency of the burial is not primarily about respecting the dead or preventing the smell of decay. The reason is theological: the man on the tree is under the formal, declared curse of God. The Hebrew phrase is qilelat elohim, the curse of God. This is not just social stigma; it is a statement about the man's standing before his Creator. He is an anathema, a thing devoted to destruction. He represents all that is contrary to God's holiness and blessing. To be cursed by God is to be cut off from the land of the living, from the presence of God, and from the hope of blessing. This is what Jesus became for us. On the cross, He was made the qilelat elohim in our place. The Father turned His face away, and Jesus cried out in dereliction, because He was bearing the full weight of this divine curse that we deserved.

23c so that you do not make unclean your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.

The final clause connects the theological reason to the practical, covenantal consequence. The presence of an accursed object defiles the land. Under the old covenant, the land of Canaan was a type of God's kingdom, a holy space where God dwelt with His people. Its purity had to be maintained. Allowing the curse to remain overnight would be like leaving a spiritual poison exposed, contaminating the inheritance God had given them. The land itself, a picture of God's blessing, would be polluted by the lingering symbol of God's curse. This teaches us that sin and the curse it brings are not private matters; they have a polluting effect. When Christ, our curse-bearer, was buried, it was the ultimate act of cleansing the true inheritance, which is not a patch of dirt in the Middle East, but the people of God themselves. His burial removed the defilement of our sin forever, purifying a people for God's own possession, making us a holy land where He can dwell by His Spirit.

Application

First, we must be staggered by the horror of our sin. Our sin is not a simple misstep or a character flaw. It is a crime worthy of death, deserving of the public curse of God. To see a man hanged on a tree was to see the true nature of rebellion against a holy God. To look at the cross is to see the same thing, magnified infinitely. We must never domesticate the cross. It was an instrument of torture, a place of shame, a symbol of God's curse. That is what our sin deserved.

Second, we must be overwhelmed by the love of Christ. That He, the eternally blessed Son of God, would willingly climb onto that tree and become the curse for us is a mystery of grace that we will spend eternity plumbing. He did not just pay a debt; He absorbed the poison. He became the unclean thing so that we might be made clean. He was publicly shamed so that we might be brought into eternal glory. Our salvation was accomplished at the cost of the Son of God being made a public spectacle of damnation.

Finally, this passage calls us to live as a cleansed people. The land was to be kept pure by the removal of the curse. We, the church, are God's holy land now. Because Christ has taken our curse and buried it, we are to live in holiness. We are not to trifle with the very sin that nailed Him to that tree. We are to be zealous in putting sin to death in our lives, not to earn our salvation, but because our salvation has been earned at such a terrible and glorious price. The curse has been removed. Therefore, we must live in the freedom and purity of the blessing that Christ has secured for us, as a people who are no longer defiled, but are the holy inheritance of God.