Deuteronomy 25:1

1 When men have a legal dispute, let them go to court; the judges will decide between them, declaring one innocent and the other guilty.

Deuteronomy 25:1 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 25:1

If there be a controversy between men
Between two or more:

and they come unto judgment;
into a court of judicature, bring their cause thither:

that [the judges] may judge them;
who were never less than three; the great sanhedrim at Jerusalem consisted of seventy one, the lesser court was of twenty three, and the least of all three only:

then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked:
acquit the one, whose cause is good, and condemn the other to punishment, who is guilty of a crime, and as that deserves; which is to do righteous judgment; the contrary to this is an abomination to the Lord, ( Proverbs 17:15 ) .

Deuteronomy 25:1 In-Context

1 When men have a legal dispute, let them go to court; the judges will decide between them, declaring one innocent and the other guilty.

2 If the guilty one deserves punishment, the judge will have him prostrate himself before him and lashed as many times as his crime deserves,

3 but not more than forty. If you hit him more than forty times, you will degrade him to something less than human.

4 Don't muzzle an ox while it is threshing.

5 When brothers are living together and one of them dies without having had a son, the widow of the dead brother shall not marry a stranger from outside the family; her husband's brother is to come to her and marry her and do the brother-in-law's duty by her.