“non permanebit cadaver ejus in ligno, sed in eadem die sepelietur : quia maledictus a Deo est qui pendet in ligno : et nequaquam contaminabis terram tuam, quam Dominus Deus tuus dederit tibi in possessionem.”
“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. accursed: Heb. the curse of God”
“you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.”
“his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.”
“his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt surely bury him the same day; for he that is hanged is accursed of God; that thou defile not thy land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”
Cross references: : Gal. 3:13 For God’s Law by his death is satisfied, and nature abhorreth cruelty.
Of God. Chaldean, “he has been fixed on the gibbet for sinning against God.” Symmachus and Arabic, “he has blasphemed the Lord.” Syriac, “the man who has blasphemed shall be hung.” Only people accused of great crimes, such as blasphemy and idolatry, were condemned to this reproachful death, and prayers were not said for them in the synagogue, as they were for other persons, during the 11 months following their decease. (Calmet) — They are not to be remembered before God. Their dead bodies are to be buried before sunset, that the country may not be defiled. The punishment itself is extremely infamous, and the name of God is often used by the Jews, to express something in the highest degree, as the cedars of God, &c. (Haydock) — Some understand this passage, as if the body were not to be left on the gibbet, because man, being created to the likeness of God, he will not allow the body to be insulted. Homer (Iliad xxiv.) says that Achilles offered an insult to the earth, when he dragged the dead body of Hector round the walls of Troy. Others think, that the criminal having been treated with due severity, as accursed of God, his corpse must not be deprived of decent burial. Res sacra miser. The Jews refused this privilege to none but suicides, (Josephus, Jewish Wars iii. 25,) while the Egyptians and Phœnicians suffered the bodies to rot upon the gibbet, whose inhumanity God here reproves. St. Paul reads this verse in a different manner both from the Hebrew and Septuagint, leaving out of God, and substituting, with the Septuagint, the words every one, and on a tree. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, Galatians iii. 13. St. Jerome remarks, that on this as well as on other occasions, he adheres to the sense, without following the express words of Scripture. He also observes, with Tertullian, that only those are declared accursed by the law, who are hung for their crimes; and as Jesus Christ suffered, not for any fault of his own, but being willing to appear in the character of one accursed, he has procured for us all blessings. (Calmet) — In a mystical sense, that man is accursed who is obstinate in sin, hanging as it were on the tree, which was the occasion of our first parents’ transgression. (Worthington) — St. Jerome seems to think that the Jews have inserted of God, to intimate that Christ was accursed of him. (Haydock)
Verses 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.