The Fifth Book of Moses, called Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 25
Chapter XXV · Vol. I, p. 518
1 Stripes must not exceed forty. 4 The ox is not to be muzzled. 5 Of raising up seed unto a deceased brother. 11 Of the immodest woman. 13 Of unjust weights and measures. 17 The memory of Amalek is to be blotted out.
1 IF therea 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.
a ch.16.18,20; 17.8. Ex.23.6,7. Ps.58.1,2; 82.2,3. 2 Ch.19.6-10.
2 And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy bto 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.1
b Mat.10.17. Lu.12.47. Ac.5.40; 16.22-24,37. 2 Co.11.25.
1 It is a remarkable fact, that for the more effectual repression of certain crimes, the most experienced magistrates and legislators of this 19th century have felt compelled to adopt the Mosaic punishment of 'whipping.'—P.
3 Fortyc stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes,2 then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.3
2 To a people accustomed to witness the punishment of criminals almost exclusively by imprisonment, fine, hard labour, or exile, the punishment by stripes may appear rude and barbarous; but when guarded from the possibility of vengeful and destructive severity, and while inflicted as punishment, yet severed from degradation, it will be found a wiser, and, in the end, a more merciful law than those imprisonments that, in spite of the most careful classification of criminals, and the best regulated discipline, still render the jail a school where the culprit often retires, and nothing intimidated by restraint, but better instructed by companionships in the ways of renewed criminality.—C.
3 Being used as a slave or beast.
4 Thoud shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadethe out the corn.
d Pr.12.10. 1 Co.9.9. 1 Ti.5.17,18.
e Heb. thrasheth, which they did either by treading on it, or drawing a cart over it, Is.28.27.
5 Iff 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 ghusband'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 first-born which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not hput out of Israel.
7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife,4 then let his brother's wife go iup 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.
4 Or, next kinsman's wife.
i ch.21.19; 22.17,24. Ru.4.1-7. Thus the refusal was to be deliberate, solemn, and obstinate, and attended with great shame to the refuser.
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 kloose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his 5face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.
k Ps.60.8. Nu.12.14. Is.50.6. Mat.25.30; 22.2,7. Lu.19.12-27. Ro.6.21.
5 See note on Nu. 12. 14. There was no disgrace intended by this law for him that refused: for disgrace, as a penalty, would imply disobedience, and to sanction disobedience would be to nullify the law itself. The whole institution was a mere legal testimony of renunciation.—C.
11 When men strive together one with another, and mthe 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 Thoun shalt not have in thy bag divers weights,6 a great and a small.
n Le.19.35,36. Mi.6.11. Pr.20.10,23; 11.1. Eze.45.10.
6 Heb. a stone and a stone——[This indicates that stones, the due weight of which was properly ascertained, were the weights then most commonly in use. The phrase 'a stone weight' indicates the same to have been, and indeed it still is, used among ourselves. It is obvious that as stones vary greatly in their weight in proportion to their size, deception was easy in this way. The dealer having a stone of different weights, one light to sell with, and another heavier to buy with, even when the apparent size was the same, could not be so easily detected. They were forbidden therefore to have such weights in their houses, and it is called, like the greatest crimes, an abomination to the Lord.—I.]
14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures,7 a great and a small.
7 Heb. an ephah and an ephah.
15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have; that thy days omay be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
o Ex.20.12. ch.4.40; 5.16,33; 6.2; 11.9; 17.20.
16 For all that do such things, and pall that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
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 rhe 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 sshalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.8
s Ju.6.3; vii. viii. 1 Sa.14.48; xv.; 27.8; 30.1,17. 1 Ch.4.43. Est. vii. viii.
8 This order has been stigmatized by infidels as implacable resentment and unnatural perpetuation of an old injury. It is, however, neither the one nor the other. It is a righteous command to punish a wicked nation according to their wickedness. Time may appease resentment, but can never change crime. Murderers who had escaped punishment long have been condemned to death by the most civilized modern nations after a lapse of half a century. Why should the infidel censure Moses for what all just laws enforce?—C.
Notes
Reflections.—Inhuman cruelty, even towards evil-doers, nay, towards brute beasts, especially when serviceable to us, is very unbecoming the professors of Christianity. It is impossible to force affection, or to render a marriage happy without it. But the Christian in every situation must attend to the path of duty: and they deserve reproach themselves who give occasion to cast reproach on others. What fearful shame and dishonour must then await those ministers and Christians who reproach, and attempt to ruin Christ and his church, by refusing to exert themselves in winning souls to them! Nothing is more shocking in a woman than immodesty, whether it be in the outrage of passion or in wanton lewdness. When once the hedge of modesty is broken through, the grossest unchastity may soon follow. Detestable to God, and hurtful to the user at last, is every act of fraud and dishonesty: and terrible and lasting, though often slow in the execution, is God's justice against the unprovoked injurers of his people.