22 f. Of the Exposed Corpse of a Criminal<\/p>\n
A corpse exposed after execution shall be buried before night; cursed of God it must not be left to defile the land. In the Sg. address and closing with a deuteronomic formula.<\/p>\n
Hanging (or impalement? see below) was not the form of the criminal’s death but was subsequent to the execution and an aggravation of its dishonour. This is clear not only from Deu 21:22<\/em><\/span>, but from Jos 8:29<\/span>; Jos 10:26<\/span>, 1Sa 31:10<\/span>, 2Sa 4:12<\/span> and is perhaps intended also in Gen 40:19<\/span> (and by consequence in Deu 21:22<\/em><\/span>, Gen 41:13<\/span>). Compare the similar treatment of the corpses of traitors and other notorious criminals in Europe till within recent times. In early Israel bodies thus exposed were buried before night and under or behind great stones, as though finally to suppress and get rid of the spirit of the criminal, which otherwise would continue to haunt the neighbourhood. If that was the original idea, it is ignored by D and this other substituted, that the hanged thing was under God’s curse and unburied might infect His holy land with His wrath.<\/p>\n 22<\/strong>. if a man<\/em>, etc.] Cp. Deu 21:15<\/em><\/span> ; Deu 21:18<\/em><\/span><\/em>; lit. if there be against a man a sin, a sentence<\/em> ( mishpa<\/em>), of death<\/em>. This compound phrase seems a fusion of a sin of death<\/em>, a capital sin, Deu 22:26<\/span>, and a sentence of death<\/em>, a capital charge, Deu 19:6<\/span>. Or mishpa<\/em> is a gloss.<\/p>\n and thou hang him on a tree<\/em> ] Not necessarily tree<\/em> but something wooden<\/em> (see Deu 19:5<\/span>), LXX . It may have been a stake or pole, Est 7:9<\/span>, EVV. gallows<\/em>. Of the cross in Gal 3:13<\/span>. So also hang<\/em>, LXX , may be both here and in passages cited above affix<\/em> or impale<\/em>, Est 7:9<\/span>, LXX (but this was in Persia, for which cp. the of Herod. i. 128). Impalement is implied in Ezr 6:11<\/span>; and probably in 2Ma 15:35 , Jdt 14:1 , Lam 5:12<\/span>. As their sculptures illustrate, Assyrians and Babylonians frequently impaled the bodies of their enemies.<\/p>\n There were four methods of execution in use among the ancient Jews; stoning (Exo 17:4<\/span>; Deu 13:10<\/span>, etc.), burning Lev 20:14<\/span>; Lev 21:9<\/span>, the sword Exo 32:27<\/span>, and strangulation. The latter, though not named in Scripture, is regarded by the rabbis as the most common, and the proper one to be adopted when no other is expressly enjoined by the Law. Suspension, whether from cross, stake, or gallows, was not used as a mode of taking life, but was sometimes added after death as an enhancement of punishment. Pharaohs chief baker Gen 40:19<\/span> was hanged after being put to death by the sword; and similarly Joshua appears Jos 10:26<\/span> to have dealt with the five kings who made war against Gibeon. Compare also Num 25:4<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n Deu 21:22-23<\/span><\/p>\n He that is hanged is accursed of God.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hanging<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Physically it would be defiled. In the hot climate its decomposition would injure the health and peril the life of others.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Morally, as the land of Jehovah, it would be polluted. Remembrance of crime would harden the heart and breed familiarity.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>He became our substitute.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>He was buried in the evening (Joh 19:31<\/span>).<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>As the land was cleansed by removal of curse, so the conscience and the Church purified by Christ. (J. Wolfendale.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The accursed tree<\/strong><\/p>\n .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Which was done after the malefactor was put to death some other way, this public shame being added to his former punishment. See Jos 7:25<\/span>; 8:29<\/span>; 10:26<\/span>; 2Sa 4:12<\/span>. <\/P> <\/p>\n 22, 23. if a man have committed asin . . . and thou hang him on a tree<\/B>Hanging was not a Hebrewform of execution (gibbeting is meant), but the body was not to beleft to rot or be a prey to ravenous birds; it was to be buried “thatday,” either because the stench in a hot climate would corruptthe air, or the spectacle of an exposed corpse bring ceremonialdefilement on the land.<\/P><\/p>\n And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death<\/strong>,…. This before mentioned, or any other that deserves death, any kind of death, as strangling, killing with the sword, burning and stoning, to which the Jews restrain it here:<\/p>\n and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him, on a tree<\/strong>; is condemned to stoning, and after that they hang him, as the Targum of Jonathan; and according to the Jewish Rabbins, as Jarchi observes, all that were stoned were to be hanged, and only men, not women g; for it is remarked that it is said “him” and not “her” h: about this there is a dispute in the Misnah i;<\/p>\n “all that are stoned are hanged, they are the words of R. Eliezer; but the wise men say none are to be hanged but the blasphemer and idolater; a man is to be hanged with his face to the people, a woman with her face to the tree, they are the words of R. Eliezer; but the wise men say, a man is to be hanged, but no woman, to whom R. Eliezer replied, did not Simeon Ben Shetach hang women in Ashkelon? they answered him, he hung eighty women (at once), but they do not judge or condemn two in one day;”<\/p>\n so that this was a particular case at a particular time, and not be drawn into an example: in the same place it is asked,<\/p>\n “how they hang one? they fix a beam in the earth, and a piece of wood goes out of it (near the top of it, as one of the commentator k remarks), and join his two hands together and hang him;”<\/p>\n that is, by his hand, not by his neck, as with us, but rather in the crucifixion; only in that the hands are spread, and one hand is fastened to one part of the cross beam, and the other to the other end.<\/p>\n g Misn. Sotah, c. 3. sect. 8. h Maimon. & Bartenora in. ib. i Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 6. sect. 4. k Bartenora in Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 6. sect. 4.<\/p>\n Burial of those who had been Hanged. – If there was a sin upon a man, , lit., a right of death, i.e., a capital crime (cf. Deu 19:6<\/span> and Deu 22:26<\/span>), and he was put to death, and they hanged him upon a tree (wood), his body was not to remain upon the wood over night, but they were to bury him on the same day upon which he as hanged; “ for the hanged man is a curse of God<\/em>,” and they were not to defile the land which Jehovah gave for an inheritance. The hanging, not of criminals who were to be put to death, but of those who had been executed with the sword, was an intensification of the punishment of death (see at Num 25:4<\/span>), inasmuch as the body was thereby exposed to peculiar kinds of abominations. Moses commanded the burial of those who had been hanged upon the day of their execution, – that is to say, as we may see from the application of this law in Jos 8:29<\/span>; Jos 10:26-27<\/span>, before sunset, – because the hanged man, being a curse of God, defiled the land. The land was defiled not only by vices and crimes (cf. Lev 18:24<\/span>, Lev 18:28<\/span>; Num 35:34<\/span>), but also by the exposure to view of criminals who had been punished with death, and thus had been smitten by the curse of God, inasmuch as their shameful deeds were thereby publicly exposed to view. We are not to think of any bodily defilement of the land through the decomposition consequent upon death, as J. D. Mich.<\/em> and Sommer<\/em> suppose; so that there is no ground for speaking of any discrepancy between this and the old law. – (On the application of this law to Christ, see Gal 3:13<\/span>.), – This regulation is appended very loosely to what precedes. The link of connection is contained in the thought, that with the punishment of the wicked the recollection of their crimes was also to be removed.<\/p>\n Verses 22, 23:<\/strong><\/p>\n The common method of capital punishment was death by stoning. But in the case of a particularly heinous crime, the body of the criminal might be hanged on a tree, or impaled on a stake, for public display. In this event, the body must not be allowed to remain hanging overnight. The reason: that the land might not be defiled.<\/p>\n The sins of criminals defiled the land, but the public display of executed criminals also defiled it, see Lev 18:24-25<\/span>; Num 35:33-34<\/span>; Jos 8:29<\/span>; Jos 10:26-27<\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n The object of this precept was to banish inhumanity and barbarism from the chosen people, and also to impress upon them horror even of a just execution. And surely the body of a man suspended on a cross is a sad and hideous spectacle; for the rights of sepulture are ordained for man, both as a pledge and symbol of the resurrection, and also to spare the eyes of the living, lest they should be defiled by the sight of so horrible a thing. Moses does not here speak generally, but only of those malefactors who are unworthy of the honor of burial; yet the public good is regarded in the burial even of such as these, lest men should grow accustomed to cruelty, and thus become more ready to commit murder. Moreover, that they may take more careful heed in this matter, he declares that the land would be defiled, if the corpse should be left hanging on the cross, since such inhumanity pollutes and disgraces the land. And this was more intolerable in Judea, which God had given as an inheritance to his elect people, that he might be there worshipped reverentially, and purely, every profanation being excluded. The man so hanged is called (42) “the curse of God,” because this kind of punishment is detestable in itself. God, indeed, does not forbid criminals to be crucified, or hanged on a gallows, but rather gives His sanction to this mode of punishment; He only, by His own example, exhorts the Israelites to abhor all atrocity. Although, therefore, He does not disapprove of the punishment, He still says that lie abominates those that are hanged on a tree, that the scandal may be immediately removed; nor does He call them accursed, as if their salvation was to be despaired of, but because the hanging was a mark of His curse. This passage Paul applies to Christ, to teach us that He was made κατάρα ( a curse) for us, that He might deliver us from the curse of the Law. ( Gal 3:13<\/span>.) For, since all are guilty of transgression, and thus the whole race of mankind is implicated in the curse, there was no other mode of deliverance, except that Christ should substitute Himself in our place. Nor was God unmindful of His sentence, when He suffered His only-begot, tea Son to be crucified. Hence it follows that He submitted Himself to our condition, in order; that we might receive God’s blessing; since He was <\/p>\n “<\/p>\n made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:21<\/span>.) <\/p>\n (42) See margin, A. V. <\/p>\n i. THE SANCTITY OF THE LAND: MAN HANGED ON A TREE (Deu. 21:22-23<\/span>)<\/p>\n 22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree; 23 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.<\/p>\n THOUGHT QUESTIONS 21:22, 23<\/p>\n 357.<\/p>\n Read Jos. 10:22-27<\/span> and Num. 25:4<\/span> to help understand this section<\/p>\n 358.<\/p>\n Was the hanging the cause of the death? What purpose was there in hanging on a tree?<\/p>\n AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 21:22, 23<\/p>\n 22 And if a man has committed a son worthy of death, and he is put to death, and [afterward] you hang him on a tree, [Jos. 10:26-27<\/span>.]<\/p>\n 23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; thus you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. [Gal. 3:13<\/span>.]<\/p>\n COMMENT 21:22, 23<\/p>\n Note how Joshua carried out this command in Jos. 10:22-27<\/span>. See also Num. 25:4<\/span>. This seems to be not a mode of execution per se, but rather a law concerning exposure after death. Ancient Syrian sculptures show naked men impaled at the top of long poles, and by the time of Esther the gallows (Est. 5:14<\/span>apparently a similar device) was employed for the same purposepublic exposure of a criminal as an object of warning to the people.<\/p>\n Crucifixion was a terrible method of punishment adopted later by the Romans from the Orient, and used by them only on slaves and the vilest of criminals. The victim was left to die of exhaustion, whereas here the victim was slain first. But it, too, involved hanging on a tree, and Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (Cf. Gal. 3:13<\/span>). Thus the death of our Savior by this means was doubly humiliating, simply from a standpoint of the opinion society had of such a criminal.<\/p>\n And Pauls application is that in becoming such a curse for us, we may claim the promise of life.<\/p>\n Deu. 21:22-23<\/span>.HANGING.<\/strong><\/p>\n (22) And he be put to death.<\/strong>Better, and he hath been put to death. <\/em>Hanging followed <\/em>death in Israel (Jos. 10:26-27<\/span>).<\/p>\n (23) His body shall not remain all night.<\/strong>Observed by Joshua, but broken by the Gibeonites (2Sa. 22:9-10<\/span>; 2Sa. 22:14<\/span>).<\/p>\n He that is hanged is accursed of God.<\/strong>In the LXX., Cursed of God is every one that hangeth upon a tree, <\/em>and cited in this form by St. Paul (Gal. 3:13<\/span>). We cannot see why he should be pronounced cursed, except for the sake of that which was designed by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, that His Son Jesus Christ should bear our sins in His own body on the tree, and redeem us from the curse of the Law, by being made a curse for us.<\/p>\n Rashis note upon this shows how strangely the rays of truth are sometimes refracted in the Jewish mina: He that is hanged is the curse of Godthat is, he is the Kings disgrace. <\/em>For man was made in the likeness of His image. And Israel are his children. There were two twin brothers, who were much alike. One was made king, the other was taken up for highway robbery, and was hanged. Every one who saw him said, There hangs the king! From this note it is clear that Rashi takes the words to mean, He that is hanged is Gods disgrace, <\/em>because man is made after the similitude of God. There is no doubt as to the shame <\/em>of the punishment which our Lord endured and despised.<\/p>\n Thou shalt in any wise bury him that day.<\/strong>Another law, remarkably and providentially fulfilled in our Lords death. We do not read that the robbers who were crucified with Him were buried, though their bodies were removed from the cross. It is not improbable that this law was also intended to prevent the barbarous practice of leaving men impaled op sharp stakes or suspended upon crosses from day to day until they died of pain and thirst. It certainly is a disgrace to the Divine image to treat it thus.<\/p>\n 22<\/strong>. <\/strong> If a man be put to death <\/strong> Capital punishment among the Hebrews was usually inflicted by stoning. See Exo 17:4<\/span>; Deu 13:10<\/span>; Joh 10:31<\/span>; Act 14:5<\/span>. Burning, in early times, was the punishment for unchastity. Gen 38:24<\/span>. In Lev 21:9<\/span>, it is made the penalty for this sin in the case of a priest’s daughter. It was also the punishment for incest. Death by the sword or spear is mentioned in Exo 19:13<\/span>; Exo 32:27<\/span>; Num 25:7-8<\/span>. According to the rabbins strangling was the most common method of capital punishment. <\/p>\n Hang him on a tree <\/strong> That is, after he has been put to death his body is to be ignominiously exposed to public view.<\/p>\n Disposal Of Bodies Which Are Accursed ( Deu 21:22-23<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> ).<\/strong> <\/p>\n The thought of the stoning of a son who was worthy of death leads on to the question of what was done with the body of such a person. <\/p>\n Analysis using the words of Moses: <\/p>\n a<\/strong> And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree (Deu 21:22<\/span>). <\/p>\n b<\/strong> His body shall not remain all night on the tree (Deu 21:23<\/span> a). <\/p>\n b<\/strong> But you shall surely bury him the same day (Deu 21:23<\/span> b). <\/p>\n a<\/strong> For he who is hanged is accursed of God, that you defile not your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance (Deu 21:23<\/span> c). <\/p>\n Note that in ‘a’ the man is executed and hung and in the parallel he is accursed of God because he has been executed and hung which is why he must not be allowed to remain there overnight. In ‘b’ his body must not remain on the tree all night, but in the parallel must be moved the same day. <\/p>\n Deu 21:22-23<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n ‘<\/strong> And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 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 defile not your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.’ <\/p>\n It is clear from this that the practise with executed criminals was to display the body on a tree. By this it would be made apparent to the whole society that this man had been tried, sentenced, and executed. Such a man was necessarily under a curse (compare Deu 27:15-26<\/span>). It brought shame on him and his family. <\/p>\n But his body must not remain on the tree all night. He must be buried the same day because he was under God’s curse and to leave a cursed body there through the night would be to defile the land. It would be to extend into the next day the necessary execution of the criminal which should all be finished with on the day of execution. The execution had as it were cancelled out the criminal behaviour. The two went together, excusing and explaining the death of the criminal so that it did not defile the land. <\/p>\n But to leave the body hanging exposed on the tree would be to leave it with nothing to set against it on the morrow, the death thus defiling the land (compare Num 35:33<\/span>). And to defile the land which Yahweh had given them as an inheritance was unthinkable. There was in this an element of mercy. Sufficient unto a day is the evil thereof. <\/p>\n It need hardly be said that in a hot country the corpse would rapidly putrefy. This too might have been seen as part of the defilement. The hanging of criminals to public exposure was a common practise. (Compare Gen 40:19<\/span>; Num 25:4<\/span>; Jos 8:29<\/span>; Jos 10:26-27<\/span>; 1Sa 31:10<\/span>; 2Sa 4:12 ; 2Sa 21:8-9<\/span>; Est 2:23<\/span>). It is also mentioned in the Law Code of Hammurabi. <\/p>\n Paul took this fact and applied it to the death of Jesus on our behalf. By hanging on a tree He willingly became a curse for us thus bearing for us the curse of sin (Gal 3:10-13<\/span>). <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/strong> Concerning the Body of One Hanged<\/p>\n v. 22. And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death,<\/strong> one upon which the death penalty had been placed and also put into execution, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree,<\/strong> literally, “on a wood,” on some form of gallows, <\/p>\n v. 23. his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day,<\/strong> before sunset, (for he that is hanged is accursed of God,)<\/strong> rejected as detestable and as defiling the land, that thy land be not defiled,<\/strong> morally, by the presence of this curse above the ground, which the offender had no longer been worthy to tread, which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee for an inheritance. <\/strong> This rule was carried out also in the case of Jesus, Joh 19:31<\/span>, because, as St. Paul writes, He became a curse for our sakes, Gal 3:13<\/span>. <\/p>\n Ver. <\/em><\/strong>22, 23. <\/strong>He be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> Or, He be put to death, <\/em>&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 2Sa 4:12<\/span>.) 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. <\/em>See Jos 8:29<\/span>; Jos 10:26-27<\/span>. He was to be buried, that the land might not be defiled; i.e.<\/em> not by a natural, but a legal pollution, under which the whole country lay, as long as the body of a condemned malefactor hung exposed on the tree. For he that is hanged, is accursed of God, <\/em>says the sacred writer; i.e. a dead body hanging upon a cross or tree, is a most impure thing, legally most abominable and execrable before God; and still more so, as this hanging up of the body was generally a token that the person had committed some horrid crime, whereby he had incurred the high displeasure of Almighty God. In this view of things, how unfathomably deep was the humiliation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! of whom the great apostle writes, that he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for<\/em> it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. <\/em>What service or adoration can ever be sufficient for us to testify our gratitude and love for so stupendous an act of humiliation! But we shall say more, when we come to Gal 3:13<\/span>. <\/p>\n He that is hanged is accursed of God<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> The celebrated Mr. de Beausobre, in his Crit. Hist. of Manich. <\/em>tom. 1: p. 279, observes, that the sense of this passage is, that God hates wickedness, and that the body of a criminal, though dead, ought to be removed from his sight, as an object of horror. This is figurative. Men, when they detest any thing, order it to be removed from their sight. Moses never thought that a holy and innocent person, voluntarily sacrificing himself for the glory of God, could be an object of divine malediction, because he was hanged upon a tree. <\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>Hanging a disgraceful punishment. The body was exposed to insult and assault. Shameful deeds were kept in public memory, and the dead was a spectacle to the world. It was only inflicted on most infamous offenders. Cicero calls it a nameless wickedness. Its pain and disgrace were extreme.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Hanging a defilement of the land That thy land be not defiled. The vices of the living and the bodies of the dead defiled the land (Num 35:34<\/span>).<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Hanging a warning to others. The punishment was designed to deter others. They saw the terrible consequences of guilt. Alas! hanging is no warning, and men leave the very gibbet or the gallows to commit their crimes.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>Hanging a type of the death of Christ (Act 5:35<\/span>; Gal 3:13<\/span>).<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>A shameful death awaits abominable crime. Worthy, of death, lit., if there be on a man a right of death, he was hanged upon a tree.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Public ignominy expressed in this shameful death. Penalty for crime, detestation of the perpetrator, and the curse of God.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The desirability of taking away the memory of this shame. He shall not remain all night, take him down from the tree and bury him; blot out his name and remove the curse.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>Christ alone removes the curse. The best of men treated as one of the vilest, died the just for the unjust, who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. (J. Wolfendale.<\/em>)<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n