Deuteronomy 25

1 "When a legal dispute {takes place} between men and they come near to the court, and [the judges] judge [with respect to] them, then they shall declare the righteous [to be] in the right and they shall condemn the wicked,

2 then it will happen if the guilty [one] {deserves beating}, then the judge shall make him lie, and he shall beat him {before him}, {according to} {the prescribed number of lashes proportionate to the offense}.

3 He may beat him [with] forty lashes, and he shall not do more [than these], so that he [will] not beat more in addition to these many blows, and your countryman would be degraded before your eyes.

4 "You shall not muzzle an ox {when he is threshing}.

5 "When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not become the wife of a {man of another family}; her brother-in-law {shall have sex with her}, and he shall take her {to himself} as [a] wife, and he shall perform his duty as [a] brother-in-law [with respect to] her.

6 And then the firstborn that she bears {shall represent his dead brother}, so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.

7 But if the man [does] not want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister-in-law shall go up to the gate, to the elders, and she shall say, 'My brother-in-law refused {to perpetuate his brother's name} in Israel, [for] he is not willing {to marry me}.'

8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him, and [if] he persists and says, '{I do not desire to} marry her'

9 [then] his sister-in-law shall go near him before the eyes of the elders, and she shall pull off his sandal from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall {declare} and she shall say, 'This is how it is done to the man who does not build the house of his brother.'

10 And his {family} shall be called in Israel, 'The house where the sandal was pulled off.'

11 "If a man and his brother fight each other and the wife of the one [man] comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of his attacker and she stretches [out] her hand and she seizes his genitals,

12 then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not take pity.

13 "There shall not be {for your use} in your bag {two kinds of stone weights, a large one and a small one}.

14 There shall not be in your house {for your use} {two kinds of measures}.

15 [Rather] a full and honest weight shall be {for your use}; there shall be for you a full and honest {measure}, so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you may be long.

16 For detestable to Yahweh your God [is] everyone who [is] doing such things, everyone who [is] acting dishonestly.

17 "Remember what Amalek did to you on the journey when you went out from Egypt,

18 that he met you on the journey and attacked you, all those lagging behind you and [when] you were weary and worn out, and he did not fear God.

19 {And when} Yahweh your God gives rest to you from all your enemies from around [about you] in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance to take possession of it, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget!"

Deuteronomy 25 Commentary

Chapter 25

Extent of punishment. (1-3) The ox that treadeth the corn. (4) Marriage of a brother's wife. (5-12) Of unjust weights. (13-16) War against Amalek. (17-19)

Verses 1-3 Every punishment should be with solemnity, that those who see it may be filled with dread, and be warned not to offend in like manner. And though the criminals must be shamed as well as put to pain, for their warning and disgrace, yet care should be taken that they do not appear totally vile. Happy those who are chastened of the Lord to humble them, that they should not be condemned with the world to destruction.

Verse 4 This is a charge to husbandmen. It teaches us to make much of the animals that serve us. But we must learn, not only to be just, but kind to all who are employed for the good of our ( 1 Corinthians. 9:9 )

Verses 5-12 The custom here regulated seems to have been in the Jewish law in order to keep inheritances distinct; now it is unlawful.

Verses 13-16 Dishonest gain always brings a curse on men's property, families, and souls. Happy those who judge themselves, repent of and forsake their sins, and put away evil things, that they may not be condemned of the Lord.

Verses 17-19 Let every persecutor and injurer of God's people take warning from the case of the Amalekites. The longer it is before judgement comes, the more dreadful will it be at last. Amalek may remind us of the foes of our souls. May we be enabled to slay all our lusts, all the corruptions both within and without, all the powers of darkness and of the world, which oppose our way to the blessed Saviour.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "shall be"
• [b]. Literally "[is] a son [of] beating"
• [c]. Literally "to the face of him"
• [d]. Literally "as"
• [e]. Literally "as is sufficient/necessary, with respect to number, for his wickedness/wicked behavior"
• [f]. Hebrew "blow"
• [g]. Or "brother"
• [h]. Hebrew "is"
• [i]. Literally "at his threshing"
• [j]. Others: "strange man," "man outside the family" (NEB)
• [k]. Literally "shall go to her"
• [l]. Literally "to/for him"
• [m]. Literally "he shall stand upon the name of his brother the deceased"
• [n]. Literally "to cause a name to stand for his brother"
• [o]. Literally "to consummate the marriage with the widow of a [his] brother"
• [p]. Literally "I do not delight in"
• [q]. Literally "respond/answer"
• [r]. Literally "name"
• [s]. Or "the house [of the man whose] sandal was pulled off"
• [t]. Literally "to you"
• [u]. Literally "stone and stone large and small"
• [v]. Literally "for you"
• [w]. Literally "ephah and ephah large and small"
• [x]. Literally "for you"
• [y]. Literally "an ephah"
• [z]. Or "for"
• [aa]. Or "[are] all [who][are] doing"
• [ab]. Or "all [who][are] acting"
• [ac]. Or "at/in"
• [ad]. Literally "And it will happen when"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 25

Several laws are contained in this chapter, as concerning beating such whose crimes required it, De 25:1-3; of not muzzling the ox in treading out the corn, De 25:4; of marrying a deceased brother's wife, when there was no issue, and of the disgrace of such that refused it, De 25:5-10; of the punishment of an immodest woman, De 25:11,12; and against bad weights and measures, De 25:13-16; and for the utter destruction of Amalek, De 25:17-19.