Forty Stripes, Weights, and Amalek
1 If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment and the judges judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. 2 It shall be, if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number. 3 He may sentence him to no more than forty stripes. He shall not give more, lest if he should give more and beat him more than that many stripes, then your brother will be degraded in your sight. 4 You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. 5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6 It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel. 7 If the man doesn’t want 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 raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.” 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him. If he stands and says, “I don’t want to take her,” 9 then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his sandal from off his foot, and spit in his face. She shall answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.” 10 His name shall be called in Israel, “The house of him who had his sandal removed.” 11 When men strive against each other, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts out her hand, and grabs him by his private parts, 12 then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity. 13 You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, one heavy and one light. 14 You shall not have in your house diverse measures, one large and one small. 15 You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 16 For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 17 Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God. 19 Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.
A flogging is capped so the man remains a brother, an ox is fed while it works, and honest scales are made a condition of long life.
The first law limits a punishment, and gives the reason in a single clause.
A guilty man may be beaten according to his wickedness, by number, and he may sentence him to no more than forty stripes Deuteronomy 25:2–3. The cap exists so that your brother will be degraded in your sight — the phrase is the whole argument. Punishment may hurt a man; it may not turn him into something less than a member of the community, and the person protected from that damage is partly the one watching.
The next verse is four words long and has outlived its context: you shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain Deuteronomy 25:4.
An animal walking on a threshing floor all day is not to be prevented from eating what it is working on. Paul cites it twice about paying preachers 1 Corinthians 9:9 1 Timothy 5:18, drawing from it the principle that whoever does the work has a claim on its product.
The levirate law follows Deuteronomy 25:5–10. A widow without a son is to be married by her husband's brother, and the first son shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel Deuteronomy 25:6.
Two things are being protected at once: a dead man's name and a widow's future, and in that society the second depended on the first. The refusal procedure is notable because she runs it. She goes to the elders, she states the case in her own words, and if he refuses she performs the sandal ceremony herself in public Deuteronomy 25:7–9. He is not compelled — and the shame is recorded permanently. This is the law behind the transaction at the gate in Ruth Ruth 4:7–10.
The weights and measures law is short and its promise is large. No diverse weights, one heavy and one light, and no diverse measures, one large and one small Deuteronomy 25:13–14.
The fraud is invisible: buy with the heavy weight, sell with the light one, and nobody can prove anything. The command is for a perfect and just weight, and the reward attached is that your days may be long in the land — the same promise given for honoring parents. Commercial honesty is put on the level of the fifth commandment.
The chapter ends with Amalek, and the charge against him is specific. He struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary Deuteronomy 25:18. He attacked the stragglers. What is condemned is not war but preying on the people least able to resist, and the closing words are an instruction against forgetting it.
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