Deuteronomy 25, Miscellaneous Decrees

We continue to explore the Ten Commandments, focusing on the principles behind them.

Deuteronomy 25: 1-3, Flogging

When men have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. 

If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make him lie down and have him flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime deserves, but he must not give him more than forty lashes. If he is flogged more than that, your brother will be degraded in your eyes.
 

Flogging was an ancient Middle Eastern punishment. Apparently a flogging of more than forty lashes endangered the life of the punished man. Later the Jews stopped floggings at 39 lashes, one lash short of forty, apparently to avoid accidentally doing more than forty. The apostle Paul reports (II Corinthians 11:24) that he was flogged with 39 lashes five different times.

Deuteronomy 25: 4, Let the ox feed!

Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

An ox treading grain should be allowed to feed as it works!

Deuteronomy 25: 5-10, Unsandaled

If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me."

Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, "I do not want to marry her," his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line."

That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

In the patriarchal ancient Near East, one's lineage and descendants were of critical importance.  If a man died before he had children, his brother was obligated to impregnate the widow. If he refused, there was a ceremony that dishonored the stubborn brother. An example of this type of emphasis on one's lineage occurs with the story of Tamar in Genesis 38. A modified version of the sandal ceremony appears in Ruth 4.

Deuteronomy 25: 11-12, Don't grab a man's genitals

If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
 

What a strange decree! There is surely some unknown cultural taboo in the background of this statement. Presumably the woman did not grab the man's genitals by accident but is deliberately trying to humiliate the man or even injure him enough that he could not have children.

Deuteronomy 25: 13-15, Differing weights

Do not have two differing weights in your bag--one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house--one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.

The existence of differing weights would imply a type of deceit.  In weighing out silver, for example, one might, with a sleight of hand, replace on weight with another and so deceive a partner in barter. An almost identical prohibition appears in Leviticus 19: 35-36; later Israel is accused of this type of cheating by the prophet Amos (Amos 8: 5.)

Deuteronomy 25: 17-19, Remember

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God.

When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

Revenge is ordered on the Amalekites, who attacked Israel from behind when the Israelites were moving through their region. The Amalekites will be a persistent enemy throughout the early days of the nation of Israel.