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At the beginning of Deuteronomy 21, there is the issue of how to respond to a dead body—in that case, a man who had been killed by an unknown assailant. At the end of Deuteronomy 21, there is the issue of how to respond to a dead body—in that case, a man who had been put to death by the community. In 21:1–9 a dead man was innocent. In 21:22–23 a dead man was guilty.
In these last two verses of Deuteronomy 21, Moses said, “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance” (Deut. 21:22–23).
What’s the logic in Moses’s words? And why did Paul quote from these words when he spoke of Jesus’s substitutionary death?