Deuteronomy · chapter 25 of 34
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Deuteronomy 25 limits flogging to forty stripes to protect the dignity of the condemned, forbids muzzling an ox while it treads grain and regulates levirate marriage, in which a dead man's brother raises up offspring in his name. It requires honest weights and measures and ends with the command not to forget Amalek, who attacked Israel's stragglers in the wilderness.
This chapter continues the laws Moses gives Israel shortly before entering the land. It brings together topics of justice in the courts, of family and of commerce. In all of them God asks that the dignity of the person be respected, even that of the guilty, the animal and the weak, and that the people remember who their enemy was and who delivered them.
When two people have a dispute, the judge declares who is righteous and who is guilty. If the guilty one deserves flogging, he is to be beaten in the judge's presence according to his offense, but with a maximum of forty stripes, so that the brother is not degraded in front of everyone. It is also commanded not to muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain, so that it may eat.
Levirate marriage is then regulated. If two brothers live together and one dies without a son, the surviving brother must marry the widow, and the first son will bear the dead man's name so that his name is not blotted out of Israel. If the brother refuses, the widow brings him before the elders; if he persists, she removes his sandal, spits in his face and declares that this is done to the man who will not build up his brother's house. His house will be called the house of him who had his sandal pulled off.
A woman whose husband is fighting with another man is forbidden to seize the other man's private parts. Next comes the command to keep honest weights and measures, because the Lord abhors anyone who deals dishonestly. The chapter ends with the memory of Amalek: on the way out of Egypt, he attacked the weak and straggling. When God gives Israel rest in the land, it is to blot out his memory from under heaven and not forget.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Flogging may not go beyond forty stripes so that the brother is not degraded in everyone's sight. Even punishment has a limit that protects human dignity.
An ox must not be muzzled while it treads out the grain. Paul cites this verse in 1 Corinthians 9 and 1 Timothy 5 to teach that those who labor in ministry deserve to be supported.
If the dead man's brother does not want to take the widow, she may go to the elders at the gate. The passage gives the widow legal recourse so her husband's name is not lost, and the book of Ruth shows something similar in the story of Boaz.
You must not have two kinds of weights in your bag, one large and one small, to cheat in business. God demands integrity even in what seems small and ordinary.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Forty stripes. — Deuteronomy 25:3
Answer: So that the brother would not be degraded in everyone's sight. — Deuteronomy 25:3
Answer: It was not to be muzzled. — Deuteronomy 25:4
Answer: Marry the widow, and the first son would bear the dead man's name. — Deuteronomy 25:5-6
Answer: The house of him who had his sandal pulled off. — Deuteronomy 25:9-10
Answer: He attacked the stragglers and the weary of Israel on the way out of Egypt, without fearing God. — Deuteronomy 25:17-18
Deuteronomy 25 invites us to review how we treat those who have failed and those who work for us. The limit on flogging reminds us that correction must never humiliate the other; in the church and the family, disciplining is not degrading. The unmuzzled ox teaches us to support generously those who serve, especially those who labor in ministry.
Honest weights bring faith into business and pay: being honest on the scale, on the invoice and in our promises. And the memory of Amalek calls us to take seriously those who take advantage of the weakness of others. A small group can ask whom we may be taking advantage of without realizing it and whom we can protect.
Deuteronomy 25 joins justice in the courts, in the family and in the marketplace under God's gaze. Chapter 26 changes tone: Israel will present the firstfruits of the land and confess who the God is that saved it.
It is the custom by which the brother of a man who died without children married the widow to give offspring to the dead man. In the book of Ruth, Boaz acts as a kinsman-redeemer in a related situation, and from that union comes Obed, David's grandfather.
In 1 Corinthians 9:9-10 and 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul uses the command to teach that those who serve in preaching and teaching deserve financial support. He applies the principle that the worker receives from his labor.
Amalek attacked the weakest of the people with no fear of God. The command is to be carried out when God gives rest in the land, and it reflects God's judgment against violence toward the defenseless. Christians read it as part of Israel's history and not as an order for today.