Deuteronomy 25

IF there be a controversie between men About criminal matters, as it follows., and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify (i. e.) Acquit him from guilt and false accusations, and free him from punishment. the righteous, and condemn Declare him guilty, and pass sentence of condemnation to suitable punishments upon him. the wicked.

And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten Which the Iews say was the case of all those crimes which the law commands to be punished, without expressing the kind or degree of the punishment.: that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face That the punishment may be duely inflicted, without excess or defect, which otherwise might easily happen through the executioners passion or partiality., according to his fault by a certain number.

Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed It seems not superstition, but prudent caution, when the Iews would not exceed 39 stripes, 2 Cor. 11. 24. least through mistake or forgetfulness or eagerness they should go beyond their bounds, which they were commanded to keep, but they were not obliged to go to the utmost extent of them.: lest if he should exceed, and beat him above these, with many stripes, then thy brother Who though faulty and chastized, yet still is thy brother by nation, and probably, by religion too. should seem vile unto thee (i. e.) Should be made contemptible to his brethren, either by this cruel usage of him as if he were a slave or brute beast: or by the desormity or infirmity of body which excessive beating might produce..

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn As the Gentiles used to do, having divers devices to keep them from eating when they trod out the corn, which they did in those parts and times by oxen, Hos. 10. 11. either immediately by their hoofs, Isa. 28. 28. Mich. 4. 13. or by drawing carts or other instruments over the corn, Isa. 25. 10. and 28. 27. and 41. 15. Amos 1. 3. Hereby God taught them humanity and kindness even to their beasts that served them, Prov. 12. 10. and much more to their servants or other men who laboured for them, and especially to their Ministers, 1 Cor. 9. 9..

If brethren Strictly so called, as is evident from ver. 7. Gen. 38. 8. Ruth. 1. 15. Mat. 22. 24, 25. dwell together, Either 1. strictly, in the same house or family: which is not probable, because the married brother may be presumed to have left his fathers house and set up a family of his own. Or 2. more largely, in the same town or city, or, at least, countrey. This is added for a releif of their consciences, that if the next brother had removed his habitation into remote parts, or were carried thither into captivity, which God foresaw, would be their case, then the wife of the dead had her liberty to marry to the next kinsman that lived in the same place with her. and one of them Either 1. the first and eldest of them, as it was practised Gen. 38. 6, &c. and expounded Mat. 22. 25. one being oft put for the first, as Gen. 1. 5. and 2. 11. Hag. 1. 1. Mark 16. 2. And the chief care was about the first-born, who were invested with singular priviledges and were types of Christ. Or 2. any of them, for the words are general, and so the practise may seem to have been Ruth 3. and the reason of the law may seem to be in a great measure the same, which was to keep up the distinction as of tribes and families, that so the Messias might be discovered by the family from which he was appointed to proceed, so also of inheritances which were divided among all the brethren, the first-born having only a double portion. die, and have no child Heb. no son. But son is oft put for any child, male or female, both in Scripture and other authours, and therefore the Hebrew no son is rendred no child here, as it is in effect Mat. 22. 24. Mark 12. 19. Luk. 20. 28. And indeed this caution was not necessary, when there was a daughter, whose child might be adopted into the name and family of its grandfather., the wife of the dead shall not marry without, unto a stranger (i. e.) To one of another family, as that word is oft used.: her husbands brother shall go in unto her Except he was married himself, as may appear by other Scriptures, and by the reason of the thing, and, as some adde, from the phrase of dwelling together, to wit, in their fathers family., and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husbands brother unto her.

And it shall be that the first-born which she beareth, shall succeed in the name of his brother Shall be called and reputed his son. See Ruth 4. 17. which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel That a family be not lost. So this was a provision that the number of their families might not be diminished..

And if the man like not to take his brothers wife, then let his brothers wife go up to the gate, unto the elders, and say, My husbands brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name To revive his brothers name and memory. in Israel: he will not perform the duty of my husbands brother.

Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him To convince him of the duty and persuade him to it.; and if he stand to it If he obstinately refuse it., and say, I like not to take her:

Then shall his brothers wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot Partly as a sign of his resignation of all his right to the woman and to her husbands inheritance; for as the shoe was a sign of ones power and right, Psal. 60 8. and 108. 9. so the parting with the shoe was a token of the alienation of such right, and that he would not and henceforth might not enter upon his brothers land; and partly as a note of infamy, to signify that by this unnatural and disingenuous action he was unworthy to be amongst free-men, and fit to be reduced to the condition of the meanest servants or captives, who used to go bare... oot, Isa. 20. 2, 4., and spit in his face As a return of his contempt upon himself. See Numb. 12. 14. Isa. 50. 6. Mat. 26. 67. and 27. 30. This was not done Ruth 4. either because he was not a brother, but a remoter kinsman, and so deserved less shame; or because Ruth did not prosecute him to the utmost, but freely consented to this exchange., and shall answer, and say, So shall it be done unto that man, that will not build up A phrase oft used for the procreation of children and the increase of a family. See Gen. 16. 2. Exod. 1. 21. 1 King 11. 38. 1 Chron. 17. 25. his brothers house.

And his name (i. e.) His person, names being oft put for persons, and his posterity also. So it was a lasting blot. shall be called in Israel, The house of him that has his shoe loosed.

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:

Then thou shalt cut off her hand Partly because of the great mischief she did to him both to his person and posterity, and partly to deter all women from all immodest and impudent carriages, and to secure that modesty, which is indeed the guardian of all the virtues, as immodesty is an inlet to all vices, as the sad experience of this degenerate age shows: and therefore it is not strange that it is so severely restrained and punished., thine eye shall not pity her Which thou wilst be very apt to do because of the infirmity of her sex and the urgency of the occasion, this being done for the necessary preservation of her husband..

Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small The great, either to buy with, or openly to make show of: the small, for their private use in selling..

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

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.

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

Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt Which circumstance greatly aggravates their sin, that they should do thus to a people who had been long exercised with sore afflictions, to whom pity and help was due by the laws of nature and humanity, and whom God had in so glorious a manner appeared for their rescue, which they could not be ignorant of. So this was barbarousness to Israel, and setting the great Jehovah at defiance..

How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee Which God permitted both for the punishment of Israels sins, and to harden and prepare them for the difficulties of their expedition., even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary: and he feared not God.

Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God has 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 Which was in great measure done afterward. See 1 Sam. 15. and 27. 8. and 30. 1, 17. 1 Chron. 4. 43. Esth. 9. 12, 13. from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.