Unlike in Westerns, God Instructs that Those Hanged Be Buried the Same Day

[ photo courtesy of wjla.com ]

The Law of Hanging -- Deuteronomy 21:22-23

In this short two-verse passage of Scripture, Moses tells the Israelites how they are to deal with those that have committed a sin worthy of death.  Throughout the books of the Bible that Moses authored, there are verses which identify the sins that qualify. Here he is just laying it out as to what is to be done with those that commit them. I find it interesting that in verse 22, the reference is to a 'sin' worthy of death, and not a 'crime'.

I would like to argue that there is a difference at least in my mind. Crimes are committed against others or against the state. Sins are committed against God. Understandingly some crimes (murder, stealing, etc.) are sins. But the emphasis here is on sins and not crimes -- it is these sins that are worthy of death. Elsewhere in Scriptures we read that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).

So these sins against God were to be dealt with by a punishment of death. And this short passage then goes on to give further instruction about those deaths that occur by hanging.

Verse 23 says that the corpse of a hanged body shall not be left hanging all night, but rather be buried on the same day as when the person was hanged.

Now here is the double-reason for doing so:
First, because the hanged person is accursed of God.
Second, because letting the body hang overnight adds to the defiling of the land which God had given them as an inheritance.

Two verses with lots of impact. We will let some of the great commentators help us out here.

ROBERT JAMIESON

Hanging was not a Hebrew form of execution . . ., but the body was not to be left to rot or be a prey to ravenous birds; it was to be buried "that day," either because the stench in a hot climate would corrupt the air, or the spectacle of an exposed corpse bring ceremonial defilement on the land.

CHUCK SMITH

Now this of course becomes interesting to us. Any man who was hung on a tree was cursed of God. Paul tells us that Christ became a curse for us because it is written, "cursed is he who hangs on a tree" (Gal 3:13). Paul was referring to this particular verse here in Deuteronomy.

But showing that Christ became the curse for us in that He took our sins upon Himself when He was hung there upon the tree, He took the curse of God. He bore the curse of God against sin. . . .

Now Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree. So you see the law actually cursed me. Man if I was living under this thing I would be stoned to death. The law condemned me to die. But Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law, because He became a curse for me. He bore the curse for me, because it is written accursed is everyone that hangs upon a tree. By Him being crucified there He bore God's curse.

DAVID GUZIK

In the thinking of ancient Israel there was something worse than being put to death. Worse than that was to be put to death and to have your corpse left exposed to shame, humiliation, and scavenging animals and birds. . . Therefore, if anyone was executed and deemed worthy of such disgrace (and you hang him on a tree), the humiliation to his memory and his family must not be excessive. This was a way of tempering even the most severe judgment with mercy. . . The punishment of being hanged on a tree, and left to open exposure, was thought to be so severe, that it was reserved only for those for which is was to be declared: "this one is accursed of God.". . . We are redeemed from the curse of the law by the work of Jesus on the cross for us. We no longer have to fear that God wants to curse us; He wants to bless us, not because of who we are, or what we have done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf.

MATTHEW HENRY

The hanging of them by the neck till the body was dead was not used at all among the Jews, as with us; but of such as were stoned to death, if it were for blasphemy, or some other very execrable crime, it was usual, by order of the judges, to hang up the dead bodies upon a post for some time, as a spectacle to the world, to express the ignominy of the crime, and to strike the greater terror upon others, that they might not only hear and fear, but see and fear. Now it is here provided that, whatever time of the day they were thus hanged up, at sun-set they should be taken down and buried, and not left to hang out all night; sufficient (says the law) to such a man is this punishment; hitherto let it go, but no further. Let the malefactor and his crime be hidden in the grave. Now, 

• . . . The time of exposing dead bodies thus is limited for the same reason that the number of stripes was limited by another law: Lest thy brother seem vile unto thee. Punishing beyond death God reserves to himself; as for man, there is no more that he can do. . . .Yet it is plain there was something ceremonial in it; by the law of Moses the touch of a dead body was defiling, and therefore dead bodies must not be left hanging up in the country, because, by the same rule, this would defile the land.
• . . . There is one reason here given which has reference to Christ. He that is hanged is accursed of God, that is, it is the highest degree of disgrace and reproach that can be done to a man, and proclaims him under the curse of God as much as any external punishment can. Those that see him thus hang between heaven and earth will conclude him abandoned of both and unworthy of either; and therefore let him not hang all night, for that would carry it too far. Now the apostle, showing how Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being himself made a curse for us, illustrates it by comparing the brand here put on him that was hanged on a tree with the death of Christ, Gal. 3:13. Moses, by the Spirit, uses this phrase of being accursed of God, when he means no more than being treated most ignominiously, that it might afterwards be applied to the death of Christ, and might show that in it he underwent the curse of the law for us, which is a great enhancement of his love and a great encouragement to our faith in him. And (as the excellent bishop Patrick well observes) this passage is applied to the death of Christ, not only because he bore our sins and was exposed to shame, as these malefactors were that were accursed of God, but because he was in the evening taken down from the cursed tree and buried (and that by the particular care of the Jews, with an eye to this law, Jn. 19:31), in token that now, the guilt being removed, the law was satisfied, as it was when the malefactor had hanged till sun-set; it demanded no more. Then he ceased to be a curse, and those that were his. And, as the land of Israel was pure and clean when the dead body was buried, so the church is washed and cleansed by the complete satisfaction which thus Christ made.
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• And in the words of the late American Radio Broadcaster, Paul Harvey, "And now you know the rest of the story about Christ's death and burial."
• Once again the study of the Old Testament helps us understand the New Testament.
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