Moses begins by speaking about finding someone who had been murdered but no one witnessed the murder and no one knows how the person was murdered. In other words, sin took place in the land due to the fact that a body lay unattended and obviously murdered.
He says that the elders and the judges of the land are to measure the distance from the body to the nearest town. The elders of the town nearest the body are instructed to take a heifer, which had never been used for work and break its neck, Exodus 13:13.
The priests were to present the heifer as an atonement offering, Numbers 35:33-34, and so, the heifer would be used to pay the price of sin since no murderer was found.
A prayer was offered by the elders of the town on behalf of the people that the sin of murder would be forgiven and everyone was declared to be innocent of the murder, Matthew 27:24.
It appears that the elders functioned as a council to prepare the sacrifice, and the priests, the sons of Levi, would make final judgments and carry out the sacrifice, Deuteronomy 1:9-17 / Deuteronomy 16:18-20 / Exodus 18:13-26.
We must note that taking an enemy’s beautiful woman as a wife didn’t include the Canaanite women, as God said they were to be put to death, Deuteronomy 20:16-17, and He has already commanded Israel not to marry Canaanite women, Deuteronomy 7:1-5.
The shaving of her head, Leviticus 14:8 / Numbers 8:7, trimming her nails, 2 Samuel 19:24, and putting aside her clothes was a ceremony to demonstrate her total separation from the pagan gods and practices of the nation from which she came. In order to show respect to the woman, she was allowed to mourn her parents for a month, Numbers 20:29.
Notice if the husband got to the point where he didn’t care for her anymore, that is, he’s not pleased with her anymore. He couldn’t just sell the woman to slavery or treat her as a slave because he had already dishonoured her, that is, taken away her virginity. Because she had been elevated above her captive state, she had the same rights as an Israelite woman.
It appears that having multiple wives was already happening in Israel at this time, perhaps they followed the example of Abraham who married Sarah and Hagar and Jacob who married Sarah and Leah.
We must note that this was never God’s plan, God had always had in mind one man and one woman in a marriage, Matthew 19:5 / Matthew 19:8 / Ephesians 5:22-31.
As we see with Abraham and Jacob, polygamous marriages are full of strife and jealousy and there are always those who are loved less. Here Moses tells us if the one who is loved less gives birth to the firstborn, the firstborn still had all the rights of the firstborn, regardless of the fact that the mother was loved less than the other wife, Genesis 48:22 / 2 Kings 2:9.
Is it possible that this stubborn and rebellious son was the product of polygamous marriage?
If a son could not be controlled by the parents, because he is stubborn and rebellious, Deuteronomy 1:26, then it became the responsibility of the elders of the town to deal with the son.
If it turned out that the son was indeed stubborn and rebellious, then it was the responsibility of all the men of the town to execute the judgment of stoning the son to death.
We must note that the son couldn’t be stoned simply because he was stubborn and rebellious. Notice he was accused of being a glutton, a drunkard and not obeying his parents, Mark 7:10 / Ephesians 6:1 / Colossians 3:20.
He must have demonstrated in his rebellion an offence which was bad enough to receive capital punishment, Exodus 20:12 / Exodus 21:15 / Exodus 21:17 / Leviticus 20:9 / Deuteronomy 22:20-27.
Notice again that God says, ‘you must purge the evil from among you’ when all of Israel heard and saw what happened to the rebellious son, they would be afraid and all the sons of Israel would certainly think twice about doing the same, Deuteronomy 13:5 / Deuteronomy 17:7 / Deuteronomy 17:12 / Deuteronomy 19:19 / Deuteronomy 21:21.
If someone was guilty of a capital offence such as adultery, rape, disobedience to parents etc, they were to be put to death.
Such an offender couldn’t remain on the face of the earth without defiling it, Leviticus 18:24-25 / Leviticus 18:28 / Numbers 35:34 and were thereby to be removed after their punishment. These guilty ones weren’t to be left on the wood hanging overnight, Joshua 8:29 / Joshua 10:26-27.
Death by hanging on a tree exposed the body of the one executed, their shameful deeds were publicly exposed to view and it carried with it the curse of God, Numbers 25:4 / 2 Samuel 4:12.
In this way, Jesus was cursed by being hanged on the tree of the cross for our sins, John 19:31 / Galatians 3:13-14.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The curse of God is probably regarded as lying on the malefactor because, from the fact of his being hanged, he must have been guilty of a peculiarly atrocious breach of God’s covenant. Such an offender could not remain on the face of the earth without defiling it, Leviticus 18:25-28 / Numbers 35:34. Therefore after the penalty of his crime had been inflicted, and he had hung for a time as a public example, the Holy land was to be at once and entirely delivered from his presence. The placing of the body on a tree was not that which made the person accursed but was an external sign or token of his being an accursed one. Once again these incidents indicate God’s passionate distaste for unlawful living.’
The apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21:22-23 in Galatians 3:13-14, signifying the terrible death our Lord suffered in our place. The curse of the law is that man had to keep everything which was written in it, Deuteronomy 27:26.
The problem is that no one was capable of keeping all the law, no one was capable of being justified through the law and as a result, everyone was left under a curse, that is deserving God’s judgement, Romans 3:9 / Romans 3:23.
The good news is that Jesus took this curse, the punishment for sin, upon Himself for us, Isaiah. 53:8. Jesus didn’t become sinful as some believe when they read 2 Corinthians 5:21, note the footnote on this verse, Jesus became a sin offering not sinful.
He simply took the curse of God, the punishment for sins and thus redeemed us from having to pay the price of God’s curse against sin, Galatians 3:13-14.