Deuteronomy 21:23

Summary

The verse instructs that an executed body hung on a tree must not remain overnight but be buried the same day, because a hanged person is associated with qilelat elohim ("a curse of God", H7045+H0430), and failure to bury him would defile the land that Yehovah is giving as an inheritance.

Key words

• ta.Lin ("it will remain overnight", H3885A) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, describing the ongoing/future state of the corpse if left exposed.
• niv.la.T ("corpse of", H5038) — feminine singular noun in construct form, linked to the following pronominal suffix "his" (H9023), forming "his corpse."
• ka.Vor ("certainly ", H6912) + tik.be.Re.nu ("you will bury him", H6912) — infinitive absolute paired with the finite imperfect verb of the same root, a construction that intensifies or emphasizes the certainty of the action.
• ki.Lat ("[is] a curse of", H7045) — feminine singular construct noun, joined to 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430G), forming the phrase "curse of God."
• ta.Lui ("[one who] is hanged", H8518) — qal passive participle, masculine singular, describing the state of the person hanging on the tree.

What the text says

The sentence opens with a prohibition using lo' ("not", H3808) plus the imperfect ta.Lin, forbidding the corpse (niv.la.T-o) from remaining "on the tree" ('al-ha-'Etz). A causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) follows, built on the infinitive absolute ka.Vor combined with the imperfect tik.be.Re.nu — a grammatical pattern in Biblical Hebrew that reinforces the verb it accompanies, here underscoring that burial must certainly occur "on that day" (ba-Yom ha-Hu').

A second ki clause supplies the reason: qilelat elohim taluy, literally "a curse of God [is] the hanged one." The construct chain qilelat elohim links "curse" and "God" without an explicit preposition, leaving the relationship between the two nouns grammatically open — the construct can indicate a curse originating from God, a curse directed at God, or simply an association between the state of being hanged and the divine. The participle ta.Lui stands in apposition to this phrase, describing the hanged person as the referent of the clause.

The final clause repeats the negation lo' with the piel imperfect te.ta.Me' ("you will make unclean", H2930A), addressing the addressee directly regarding "your land" ('ad.Ma.te.kha), defined further by the relative clause naming Yehovah as the giver of the na.cha.Lah ("inheritance", H5159).

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders qilelat elohim as "maledictus a Deo est" ("cursed by God is"), explicitly supplying an agent ("by God") not overtly marked in the Hebrew construct phrase. The BSB similarly interprets it as "under God's curse," while RV1909 and SBLIBRE use "maldición de Dios" / "maldito por Dios," preserving the genitive ambiguity more closely to the Hebrew construct form without fixing the exact relationship between "curse" and "God."