Deuteronomy 25:1

1 If there shall be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, that [the judges] may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

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 If there shall be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, that [the judges] may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

2 And it shall be, if the wicked man [be] worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.

3 Forty stripes he may give him, [and] not exceed: lest [if] he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile to thee.

4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out [the corn].

5 If brethren shall dwell together, and one of them shall die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without to a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her to him for a wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.