Stripes must not exceed forty. The ox is not to be muzzled. Of raising
seed to the brother. Of the immodest woman. Of unjust weight. Of
destroying the Amalecites.
25:1. If there be a controversy between men, and they call upon the
judges: they shall give the prize of justice to him whom they perceive
to be just: and him whom they find to be wicked, they shall condemn of
wickedness.
25:2. And if they see that the offender be worthy of stripes: they
shall lay him down, and shall cause him to be beaten before them.
According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the
stripes be:
25:3. Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy
brother depart shamefully torn before thy eyes.
25:4. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the
floor.
Not muzzle, etc.... St. Paul understands this of the spiritual labourer
in the church of God, who is not to be denied his maintenance. 1 Cor.
9.8, 9, 10.
25:5. When brethren dwell together, and one of them dieth without
children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry to another: but his
brother shall take her, and raise up seed for his brother:
25:6. And the first son he shall have of her he shall call by his name,
that his name be not abolished out of Israel.
25:7. But if he will not take his brother’s wife, who by law belongeth
to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and call upon the
ancients, and say: My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up his
brother’s name in Israel: and will not take me to wife.
25:8. And they shall cause him to be sent for forthwith, and shall ask
him. If he answer: I will not take her to wife:
25:9. The woman shall come to him before the ancients, and shall take
off his shoe from his foot, and spit in his face, and say: So shall it
be done to the man that will not build up his brother’s house:
25:10. And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of the unshod.
25:11. If two men have words together, and one begin to fight against
the other, and the other’s wife willing to deliver her husband out of
the hand of the stronger, shall put forth her hand, and take him by the
secrets,
25:12. Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with
any pity in her regard.
25:13. Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a
less:
25:14. Neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less.
25:15. Thou shalt have a just and a true weight, and thy bushel shall
be equal and true: that thou mayest live a long time upon the land
which the Lord thy God shall give thee.
25:16. For the Lord thy God abhorreth him that doth these things, and
he hateth all injustice.
25:17. Remember what Amalec did to thee in the way when thou camest out
of Egypt:
Amalec.... This order for destroying the Amalecites, in the mystical
sense, sheweth how hateful they are to God, and what punishments they
are to look for from his justice, who attack and discourage his
servants when they are but just come out, as it were, of the Egypt of
this wicked world and being yet weak and fainthearted, are but
beginning their journey to the land of promise.
25:18. How he met thee: and slew the hindmost of the army, who sat
down, being weary, when thou wast spent with hunger and labour, and he
feared not God.
25:19. Therefore when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest, and shall
have subdued all the nations round about in the land which he hath
promised thee: thou shalt blot out his name from under heaven. See thou
forget it not.