Deuteronomy 21 Footnotes

21:21 The execution of a wayward and incorrigible son is inconceivable in modern secular society, which lacks the standards of a theocratic (ruled by God) community. The possibility described here dramatizes the heavy responsibility borne by Israelite parents to see that their offspring held to the standards demanded of the people of God. Parents were expected to be God’s agents of authority and discipline at the family level, ensuring that no dysfunctional and destructive influences entered the community of faith on their account.

21:23 The hanging on a tree here was not crucifixion, nor was it even the cause of death (v. 22). Its purpose was to put to shame a person who had committed a capital offense, both because of the heinousness of his crime and to serve as a deterrent to others. Such an individual was the special object of God’s curse, the focus of his wrath that otherwise would be poured out on the community as a whole (see 2Sm 4:12; 21:9; Gl 3:13).