Deuteronomy 21:22-23 concerns the body of a person executed for a capital offense and exposed upon a tree. Such a body was not to remain there overnight, because one who was hanged was under God's curse, and leaving the body exposed would defile the land. In its original legal setting, the passage regulates the treatment of an executed offender rather than directly predicting the manner of the Messiah's death.

Paul nevertheless gives the text a profound Christological application in Galatians 3:10-13. Humanity stands under the curse of the Law because of sin, but Christ redeems His people from that curse by becoming a curse on their behalf. Paul specifically quotes Deuteronomy: "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." Jesus was not personally guilty of the sins deserving that curse; Christian theology understands Him as voluntarily bearing the curse due to others. The shameful manner of His crucifixion thus becomes the means by which He provides redemption, transforming an Old Testament sign of judgment into an explanation of His substitutionary saving work.