Deuteronomy 25

Sundry Laws

1 "¹If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, ²and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

2 then it shall be if the wicked man ³deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt.

3 "⁴He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not ⁵degraded in your eyes.

4 "⁶You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

5 "When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. ⁷Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

6 "It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that ⁸his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7 "⁹But if the man does not desire 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 establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.'

8 "Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, 'I do not desire to take her,'

9 ¹⁰then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off * his foot and ¹¹spit in his face; and she shall declare *, 'Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.'

10 "In Israel his name shall be called, 'The house of him whose sandal is removed.'

11 "If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals,

12 then you shall cut off her hand; ¹²you shall not show pity.

13 "¹³You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small.

14 "You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small.

15 "You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, ¹⁴that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

16 "For ¹⁵everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the LORD your God.

17 "¹⁶Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt,

18 how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he ¹⁷did not fear God.

19 "Therefore it shall come about when the LORD your God has given you ¹⁸rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must 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.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 17:8-13; Deuteronomy 19:17
• 2. Deuteronomy 1:16, 17
• 3. Proverbs 19:29; Luke 12:48
• 4. 2 Corinthians 11:24
• 5. Job 18:3
• 6. Proverbs 12:10; 1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18
• 7. Matthew 22:24; Mark 12:19; Luke 20:28
• 8. Ruth 4:5, 10
• 9. Ruth 4:5, 6
• 10. Ruth 4:7, 8
• 11. Numbers 12:14
• 12. Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 19:13
• 13. Leviticus 19:35-37; Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 20:23; Ezekiel 45:10; Micah 6:11
• 14. Exodus 20:12
• 15. Proverbs 11:1
• 16. Exodus 17:8-16
• 17. Psalms 36:1; Romans 3:18
• 18. Deuteronomy 12:9

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "the judgment"
• [b]. Lit "they judge them"
• [c]. Lit "is a son of beating"
• [d]. Or "wickedness"
• [e]. Lit "stand on"
• [f]. Lit "answer and say"
• [g]. Lit "brother"
• [h]. Lit "palm"
• [i]. Lit "your eye"
• [j]. Lit "a stone and a stone"
• [k]. Lit "an ephah and an ephah"
• [l]. Lit "ephah"
• [m]. Lit "ground"
• [n]. Or "reverence"
• [o]. Lit "possess it"

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.