Deuteronomy 25:1-8

1 "If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty,

2 then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.

3 Forty stripes may be given him, but not more; lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

4 "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.

5 "If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside the family to a stranger; her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his brother who is dead, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

7 And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.'

8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he persists, saying, 'I do not wish to take her,'

Deuteronomy 25:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

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.