Deuteronomy 25:1-19 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Deuteronomy 25:1-3. Another of Dt.'s humanitarian laws. Punishment by the bastinado among the ancient Hebrews and Egyptians was common (see Wilkinson- Birch, Ancient Egyptians, i. pp. 305, 308). The present writer saw it in Egypt in 1888; see Exodus 21:20 (showing that a slave was sometimes beaten to death), Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 19:29.

Deuteronomy 25:3. The forty stripes became thirty- nine (2 Corinthians 11:24) in later times to prevent the proper number from being exceeded.

Deuteronomy 25:4. God cares even for oxen (1 Corinthians 9:9 f.* misapplies this verse) and other dumb animals (Deuteronomy 15:12-18, cf. Jonah 4:11). Oxen should be allowed to partake of the corn on which in threshing they tread.

Deuteronomy 25:5-10. Levirate (Lat. levir, husband's brother) marriage (p. 109) prevailed widely in ancient times; McLennan traces it to polyandry. Here the motives are to secure succession on the male side and to prevent the family estate from being alienated (Deuteronomy 25:9).

Deuteronomy 25:9. loose his shoe: a sign of transference (Ruth 4:7 *), here of the man's honour. spit: Numbers 12:14; Job 30:10; Isaiah 50:6.

Deuteronomy 25:10. His family shares his disgrace (Deuteronomy 21:1-9 *).

Deuteronomy 25:11 f. Cf. CH, § 195: If a man has struck his father his hands shall be cut off (often wrongly translated and then compared with Deuteronomy 25:11 f.).

Deuteronomy 25:13-16. Leviticus 19:35 f.* (H). That this prohibition was needed is shown by Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10 f.; cf. Ezekiel 45:10. The great weight was used for buying, the small for selling.

Deuteronomy 25:17-19. Repeats Exodus 17:8-13 * (H). Since the Amalekites had been exterminated under Saul (1 Samuel 14:48; 1 Samuel 14:15; 1 Samuel 27:8) and by David (1 Samuel 30:17; 2 Samuel 8:12; cf. Numbers 20) how could a command go forth in the seventh century B.C. to destroy them? D writes from the point of view of Moses-' time.

Related Commentaries of Deuteronomy 25:1

Deuteronomy 25:1-19

1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto 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 unto thee.

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

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

6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.

7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.

8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;

9 Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.

10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:

12 Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.

13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.

14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.

15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

16 For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

17 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt;

18 How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.

19 Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.