View Deuteronomy 25 in the note window.
Stripes not to exceed forty, ver. 1 - 3.
The ox not to be muzzled, ver. 4.
Of marrying the brother's widow, ver. 5 - 10.
Of an immodest woman, ver. 11, 12.
Of just weights and measures, ver. 13 - 16.
Amalek to be destroyed, ver. 17 - 19.
1: Justify - Acquit him from guilt and false accusations,
and free him from punishment.
2: Beaten - Which the Jews say was the case of all those crimes
which the law commands to be punished, without expressing the kind or
degree of punishment. Before his face - That the punishment may be duly
inflicted, without excess or defect. And from this no person's rank or
quality exempted him, if he was a delinquent.
3: Forty stripes - It seems not superstition, but prudent caution,
when the Jews would not exceed thirty - nine stripes, lest through mistake
or forgetfulness they should go beyond their bounds, which they were
commanded to keep. Should seem vile - Should be made contemptible to his
brethren, either by this cruel usage of him, as if he were a brute beast: or
by the deformity or infirmity of body which excessive beating might produce.
4: He treadeth out the corn - Which they did in those parts, either
immediately by their hoofs on by drawing carts or other instruments over
the corn. Hereby God taught them humanity, even to their beasts that served
them, and much more to their servants or other men who laboured for them,
especially to their ministers, (1Co 9:9).
5: Together - In the same town, or at least country. For if the
next brother had removed his habitation into remote parts, on were carried
thither into captivity, then the wife of the dead had her liberty to marry
the next kinsman that lived in the same place with her. One - Any of
them, for the words are general, and the reason of the law was to keep
up the distinction of tribes and families, that so the Messiah might be
discovered by the family from which he was appointed to proceed; and also
of inheritances, which were divided among all the brethren, the first - born
having only a double portion. A stranger - To one of another family.
6: That his name be not put out - That a family be not lost. So this
was a provision that the number of their families might not be diminished.
9: Loose his shoe - As a sign of his resignation of all his right to
the woman, and to her husband's inheritance: for as the shoe was a sign of
one's power and right, (Ps 60:8,108:9), so the parting with the shoe
was a token of the alienation of such right; and as a note of infamy, to
signify that by this disingenuous action he was unworthy to be amongst
free - men, and fit to be reduced to the condition of the meanest servants,
who used to go barefoot, (Isa 20:2,4).
10: His name - That is, his person, and his posterity also.
So it was a lasting blot.
13: A great and a small - The great to buy with,
the small for selling.
17: 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 was due by the laws of nature and humanity, and
for whose rescue God had in so glorious a manner appeared, which they could
not be ignorant of. So this was barbarousness to Israel, and setting
the great Jehovah at defiance.
