Deuteronomy 25 commentary

Every punishment should be with solemnity, that those who see it may be filled with dread, and be warned not to offend in like manner. And though the criminals must be shamed as well as put to pain, for their warning and disgrace, yet care should be taken that they do not appear totally vile. Happy those who are chastened of the Lord to humble them, that they should not be condemned with the world to destruction.

This is a charge to husbandmen. It teaches us to make much of the animals that serve us. But we must learn, not only to be just, but kind to all who are employed for the good of our better part, our souls, 1Co 9:9.

The custom here regulated seems to have been in the Jewish law in order to keep inheritances distinct; now it is unlawful.

Dishonest gain always brings a curse on men's property, families, and souls. Happy those who judge themselves, repent of and forsake their sins, and put away evil things, that they may not be condemned of the Lord.

Let every persecutor and injurer of God's people take warning from the case of the Amalekites. The longer it is before judgement comes, the more dreadful will it be at last. Amalek may remind us of the foes of our souls. May we be enabled to slay all our lusts, all the corruptions both within and without, all the powers of darkness and of the world, which oppose our way to the blessed Saviour.

Inasmuch as moderation and humanity are here enjoined, it is a Supplement of the Sixth Commandment. The sum is, that, if any one is judicially condemned to be beaten with stripes, the chastisement should not be excessive. The question, however, is as to a punishment, which by lawyers is called a moderate correction, “Ce que les jurisconsultes appellent une reprimande moyenne.” — Fr. and which ought to be such, as that the body torn by the whip should not be maimed or disfigured. Since, therefore, God has so far spared the guilty, as to repress even just severity, much more would He have regard paid to innocent blood; and since He prohibits the judge from using too great rigor, much less will He tolerate the violence of a private individual, if he shall employ it against his brother. But it was necessary that zeal should be thus restrained, because judges, in other respects not unjust, are often as severe against lesser offenses (delicta) as against crimes. An equal measure of punishment is not indeed prescribed, as if all were to be beaten alike; it is only prohibited that the judges should order more than forty stripes in all to be inflicted for an offense. Thus the culprits were beaten deliberately, and not in such an indiscriminate manner as when it was not requisite to count the stripes; besides, they were not so injured for the future as to be deprived of the use of any of their limbs. With the same intent God would have the judges themselves to be present, that by their authority they may prevent any excess: and the reason is added, lest “thy brother should seem vile unto thee,” because he had been beaten immoderately. This may be explained in two ways, either, lest his body should be disfigured by the blows, and so he should be rendered unsightly; or, lest, being stained for ever with ignominy and disgrace, he should be discouraged in mind; for we know how grievous and bitter it is to be mocked and insulted. A third sense, This exposition is attributed to Vatablus in Poole’s Synopsis. which some prefer, is too far-fetched, viz., lest he should die like some vile and contemptible beast; for God only provides that the wretched man should be improved by his chastisement, and not that he should grow callous from his infamy. As the Jews were always ostentatious of their zeal in trifling matters, they invented a childish precaution, in order that they might more strictly observe this law; for they were scrupulous in not proceeding to the fortieth stripe, but, by deducting one, they sought after an empty reputation for clemency, as if they were wiser than God Himself, and superior to Him in kindness. Into such folly do men fall, when they dare out of their own heads to invent anything in opposition to God’s word! This superstition already prevailed in Paul’s time, as we gather from his words, where he reports that “five times he received forty stripes save one.” (2 Corinthians 11:24.)

Deuteronomy 24

Deuteronomy 24:16

16. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

16. Non interficientur patres pro filiis, neque filii interficientur pro patribus: quisque in peccato suo morietur.

4. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox. This passage, indeed, properly belongs to the Supplements of the Commandment, but, since it is a confirmation of the foregoing decree, it seemed fit to connect them; especially because its faithful expositor, Paul, declares, that God had no other design in delivering it than that the laborer should not be defrauded of his just hire, (1 Corinthians 9:10;) for, when he is speaking of the maintenance to be afforded to the ministers of the Gospel, he adduces it. in proof of his case. And, lest any should object that there is a difference between oxen and men, he adds, that God does not care for oxen, but that it was said for the sake of those that labor. Meanwhile, we must bear in mind, that men are so instructed in equity, that they are bound to exercise it even towards the brute animals; for well does Solomon magnify the injustice, whereby our neighbor is injured, by the comparison; “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.” (Proverbs 12:10.) The sum is, that we should freely and voluntarily pay what is right, and that every one should be strict with himself as to the performance of his duty; for, if we are bound to supply subsistence to brute animals, much less must we wait for men to be importunate with us, in order that they may obtain their due.

Exodus 22

Exodus 22:21-24

21. Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

21. Peregrinum non opprimes, neque spoliabis: quia peregrini fuistis in terra AEgypti.

22. Ye shalt not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

22. Nullam viduam nec pupillum affligetis.

23. If thou afflict them in any wise, and the, and cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry:

23. Si affligendo afflixeritis eum, certe si clamando clamaverit ad me, audiendo audiam clamorem ejus:

24. And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

24. Irasceturque furor meus, et occidam vos gladio, eruntque uxores vestrae viduae, et filii vestri pupilli.

Leviticus 19

Leviticus 19:33, 34

33. And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.

33. Si peregrinatus tecum fuerit peregrinus in terra vestra, non opprimetis illum.

34. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one horn among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

34. Tanquam indigena ex vobis, erit vobis peregrinus qui peregrinatur apud vos, et diliges eum sicut teipsum: quia peregrini fuistis in terra: ego Jehova Deus vester.

5. If brethren dwell together, and one of them die. This law has some similarity with that which permits a betrothed person to return to the wife, whom he has not yet taken; since the object of both is to preserve to every man what he possesses, so that he may not be obliged to leave it to strangers, but that he may have heirs begotten of his own body: for, when a son succeeds to the father, whom he represents, there seems to be hardly any change made. Hence, too, it is manifest how greatly pleasing to God it is that no one should be deprived of his property, since He makes a provision even for the dying, that what they could not resign to others without regret and annoyance, should be preserved to their offspring. Unless, therefore, his kinsman should obviate the dead man’s childlessness, this inhumanity is accounted a kind of theft. For, since to be childless was a curse of God, it was a consolation in this condition to hope for a borrowed offspring, that the name might not be altogether extinct.

Since we now understand the intention of the law, we must also observe that the word brethren does not mean actual brothers, but cousins, and other kinsmen, whose marriage with the widows of their relative would not have been incestuous; otherwise God would contradict Himself. But these two things are quite compatible, that no one should uncover the nakedness of his brother, and yet that a widow should not marry out of her husband’s family, until she had raised up seed to him from some relation. In fact, Boaz did not marry Ruth because he was the brother of her deceased husband, but only his near kinsman. If any should object that it is not probable that other kinsmen should dwell together, I reply that this passage is improperly supposed to refer to actual living together, as if they dwelt in the same house, but that the precept is merely addressed to relations, whose near residence rendered it convenient to take the widows to their own homes; for, if any lived far away, liberty was accorded to both to seek the fulfillment of the provision elsewhere. Surely it is not probable that God would have authorized an incestuous marriage, which He had before expressed His abomination of. Nor can it be doubted, as I have above stated, but that the like necessity was imposed upon the woman of offering herself to the kinsman of her former husband; and although there was harshness in this, still she seemed to owe this much to his memory, that she should willingly raise up seed to the deceased; yet, if any one think differently, I will not contend the point with him. If, however, she were not obliged to do so, it was absurd that she should voluntarily obtrude herself: nor was there any other reason why she should bring to trial the kinsman, from whom she had suffered a repulse, except that she might acquire the liberty of marrying into another family. Yet it is not probable that he was to be condemned to an ignominious punishment, without being admitted to make his defense, because sometimes just reasons for refusal might be alleged. This disgrace, therefore, was only a penalty for inhumanity or avarice. By giving up his shoe, he renounced his right of relationship, and gave it up to another: for, by behaving so unkindly towards the dead, he became unworthy of reaping any of the advantages of his relationship.

The Ninth Commandment

Exodus 20

Exodus 20:16

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

16. Non dices adversus proximum tuum falsum testimonium (vel, non loqueris contra proximum tuum ut testis mendacii.)

Deuteronomy 5

Deuteronomy 5:20

20. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor.

20. Non dices in proximum tuum falsum testimonium.

This Law is apparently harsh, but its severity skews how very pleasing to God is modesty, whilst, on the other hand, He abominates indecency; for, if in the heat of a quarrel, when the agitation of the mind is an excuse for excesses, it was a crime thus heavily punished, for a woman to take hold of the private parts of a man who was not her husband, much less would God have her lasciviousness pardoned, if a woman were impelled by lust to do anything of the sort. Neither can we doubt but that the judges, in punishing obscenity, were bound to argue from the less to the greater. A threat is also added, lest the severity of the punishment should influence their minds to be tender and remiss ill inflicting it. It was indeed inexcusable effrontery, willfully to assail that part of the body, from the sight and touch of which all chaste women naturally recoil.

Deuteronomy 22

Deuteronomy 22:12, 5

12. Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself

12. Fimbrias facies tibi in quatuor oris operimenti tui quo operies te.

5. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.

5. Mulier non feret arma viri, nec induet vir muliebre vestimentum: quia abominatio Jehovae Dei tui est quicunque haec facit

17. Remember what Amalek did unto thee. We have elsewhere seen how the Amalekites were the first who made a hostile attack upon the people, and endeavored to interrupt their journey; and Moses also related the sentence of God against them, the execution of which he now enjoins upon the people. God then swore that there should be perpetual war against them throughout all ages; and, that His threatening might not be frustrated, He appoints His people to take vengeance upon their great cruelty and impiety. For when the Israelites were inflicting no injury nor loss upon them, it was an act of injustice to make war upon peaceful persons proceeding, without doing any wrong, to another land. But humanity was still more grossly violated by them, inasmuch as they did not spare their own kindred, and thus cast away the feelings of nature. It is plain from Genesis 36:12, that the Amalekites were the descendants of Esau; and hence it follows that they were both sprung from the same ancestor, Isaac. It is true that this command seems but little in accordance with religion, that the people should retaliate an injury done to them. I reply, that they are not stimulated to vindictive feelings in these words, but that they are commanded to punish the sins of Amalek with the same severity as those of the other nations. God appears, indeed, to influence them by private motives when He recounts the cruelty shewn by the Amalekites; but we must judge of the intention of the Legislator with reference to His nature, for we know that no angry or hateful passions can be approved by God; and hence it is easy to conclude that the command was such as the people might obey with well-regulated zeal. The first origin of the crime is specified, viz., because they “feared not God,” for this must not be taken in its ordinary meaning, but as expressing that they rebelled against God as it were deliberately. For the promise given to Abraham and Isaac could not be unknown to them; but, since Esau, the founder of their race, had fallen from the right of primogeniture, it came to pass that they attempted to bring God’s covenant to nought out of wicked and sacrilegious jealousy; and this is the reason why He unites them with the reprobate nations unto the same destruction. The word זנב, zineb, which means to crop the tail, is equivalent to making an attack on the rear, where the baggage and invalids are wont to be placed. Addition in Fr., “Dont il s’ensuit, que les Amalechites ont assailli le peuple comme en trahison;” whence it follows that the Amalekites assailed the people treacherously.

Deuteronomy 23

Deuteronomy 23:3-8

3. An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever:

3. Non ingredietur Ammonita et Moabita congregationem Jehovae: etiam generatione decima non ingredietur congregationem Jehovae usque in saeculum.

4. Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.

4. Eo quod non exceperint vos cum pane et aqua in via, posteaquam egressi estis ex Aegypto, et quod mercede conduxerit adversum te Bileam filium Beor de Pethor e Mesopotamia Syriae, ut malediceret tibi.

5. Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.

5. Sed noluit Jehova Deus tuus audire Bileam, et convertit Jehova Deus tuus tibi maledictionem in benedictionem, quod diligeret to Jehova Deus tuus.

6. Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.

6. Non quaeres pacem eorum et bonum eorum cunctis diebus tuis, in saeculum.

7. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.

7. Non abominaberis Edoaemum, quia frater tuus est: non abominaberis Aegyptium, quia peregrinus fuisti in terra ejus.

8. The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the LORD in their third generation.

8. filii qui nascentur eis generatione tertia ingredientur congregationem Jehovae.

CHAPTER 25

De 25:1-19. Stripes Must Not Exceed Forty.

2-3. if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten--In judicial sentences, which awarded punishment short of capital, scourging, like the Egyptian bastinado, was the most common form in which they were executed. The Mosaic law, however, introduced two important restrictions; namely: (1) The punishment should be inflicted in presence of the judge instead of being inflicted in private by some heartless official; and (2) The maximum amount of it should be limited to forty stripes, instead of being awarded according to the arbitrary will or passion of the magistrate. The Egyptian, like Turkish and Chinese rulers, often applied the stick till they caused death or lameness for life. Of what the scourge consisted at first we are not informed; but in later times, when the Jews were exceedingly scrupulous in adhering to the letter of the law and, for fear of miscalculation, were desirous of keeping within the prescribed limit, it was formed of three cords, terminating in leathern thongs, and thirteen strokes of this counted as thirty-nine stripes (2Co 11:24).

4. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn--In Judea, as in modern Syria and Egypt, the larger grains were beaten out by the feet of oxen, which, yoked together, day after day trod round the wide open spaces which form the threshing-floors. The animals were allowed freely to pick up a mouthful, when they chose to do so: a wise as well as humane regulation, introduced by the law of Moses (compare 1Co 9:9; 1Ti 5:17, 18).

5-10. the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother ... shall take her to him to wife--This usage existed before the age of Moses (Ge 38:8). But the Mosaic law rendered the custom obligatory (Mt 22:25) on younger brothers, or the nearest kinsman, to marry the widow (Ru 4:4), by associating the natural desire of perpetuating a brother's name with the preservation of property in the Hebrew families and tribes. If the younger brother declined to comply with the law, the widow brought her claim before the authorities of the place at a public assembly (the gate of the city); and he having declared his refusal, she was ordered to loose the thong of his shoe--a sign of degradation--following up that act by spitting on the ground--the strongest expression of ignominy and contempt among Eastern people. The shoe was kept by the magistrate as an evidence of the transaction, and the parties separated.

13-16. Thou shalt not have ... divers weights--Weights were anciently made of stone and are frequently used still by Eastern shopkeepers and traders, who take them out of the bag and put them in the balance. The man who is not cheated by the trader and his bag of divers weights must be blessed with more acuteness than most of his fellows [Roberts]. (Compare Pr 16:11; 20:10).

17-19. Remember what Amalek did--This cold-blooded and dastardly atrocity is not narrated in the previous history (Ex 17:14). It was an unprovoked outrage on the laws of nature and humanity, as well as a daring defiance of that God who had so signally shown His favor towards Israel (see on 1 Samuel 15; 27. 8; 30).

They shall justify the righteous - This is a very important passage, and is a key to several others. The word צדק tsadak is used here precisely in the same sense in which St. Paul sometimes uses the corresponding word δικαιοω, not to justify or make just, but to acquit, declare innocent, to remit punishment, or give reasons why such a one should not be punished; so here the magistrates הצדיקו hitsdiku, shall acquit, the righteous - declare him innocent, because he is found to be righteous and not wicked: so the Septuagint: και δικαιωσουσιν τον δικαιον they shall make righteous the righteous - declare him free from blame, not liable to punishment, acquitted; using the same word with St. Paul when he speaks of a sinner's justification, i. e., his acquittance from blame and punishment, because of the death of Christ in his stead.

The judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face - This precept is literally followed in China; the culprit receives in the presence of the magistrate the punishment which the law directs to be inflicted. Thus then justice is done, for the magistrate sees that the letter of the law is duly fulfilled, and that the officers do not transgress it, either by indulgence on the one hand, or severity on the other. The culprit receives nothing more nor less than what justice requires.

Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed - According to God's institution a criminal may receive forty stripes; not one more! But is the institution from above or not, that for any offense sentences a man to receive three hundred, yea, a thousand stripes? What horrible brutality is this! and what a reproach to human nature, and to the nation in which such shocking barbarities are exercised and tolerated! Most of the inhabitants of Great Britain have heard of Lord Macartney's embassy to the emperor of China, and they have also heard of its complete failure; but they have not heard the cause. It appears to have been partly occasioned by the following circumstance: A soldier had been convicted of some petty traffic with one of the natives, and he was sentenced by a court-martial to receive sixty lashes! Hear my author: - "The soldiers were drawn up in form in the outer court of the place where we resided; and the poor culprit, being fastened to one of the pillars of the great portico, received his punishment without mitigation. The abhorrence excited in the breasts of the Chinese at this cruel conduct, as it appeared to them, was demonstrably proved by their words and looks. They expressed their astonishment that a people professing the mildest, the most benevolent religion on earth, as they wished to have it believed, could be guilty of such flagrant inattention to its merciful dictates. One of the principal Mandarins, who knew a little English, expressed the general sentiment, Englishmen too much cruel, too much bad." - Accurate account of Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, by an attendant on the embassy, 12mo., 1797, p. 88.

The following is Mr. Ainsworth's note on this verse: "This number forty the Scripture uses sundry times in cases of humiliation, affliction, and punishment. As Moses twice humbled himself in fasting and prayer forty days and forty nights, Deu 9:9, Deu 9:18. Elijah fasted forty days, 1Kgs 19:8; and our Savior, Mat 4:2. Forty years Israel was afflicted in the wilderness for their sins, Num 14:33, Num 14:34. And forty years Egypt was desolate for treacherous dealing with Israel, Eze 29:11-13. Forty days every woman was in purification for her uncleanness for a man-child that she bare, and twice forty days for a woman-child, Lev 12:4, Lev 12:5. Forty days and forty nights it rained at Noah's flood, Gen 7:12. Forty days did Ezekiel bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, Eze 4:6. Jonah preached, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, Jon 3:4. Forty years' space the Canaanites had to repent after Israel came out of Egypt, and wandered so many years in the wilderness, Num 14:33. And thrice forty years the old world had Noah preaching unto them repentance, Gen 6:3. It was forty days ere Christ ascended into heaven after his resurrection, Act 1:3, Act 1:9. And forty years' space he gave unto the Jews, from the time that they killed him, before he destroyed their city and temple by the Romans. "By the Hebrews this law is expounded thus: How many stripes do they beat (an offender) with? With forty, lacking one: as it is written, (Deu 25:2, Deu 25:3), by number forty, that is, the number which is next to forty, Talmud Bab, in Maccoth, chap. 3. This their understanding is very ancient, for so they practiced in the apostles' days; as Paul testified: Of the Jews five times received I forty (stripes) save one; 2Cor 11:24. But the reason which they give is not solid; as when they say, If it had been written Forty In Number, I would say it were full forty; but being written In Number Forty, it means the number which reckons forty next after it, that is, thirty-nine. By this exposition they confound the verses and take away the distinction. I rather think this custom was taken up by reason of the manner of their beating forespoken of, which was with a scourge that had three cords, so that every stroke was counted for three stripes, and then they could not give even forty, but either thirty-nine or forty-two, which was above the number set of God. And hereof they write thus: When they judge (or condemn) a sinner to so many (stripes) as he can bear, they judge not but by strokes that are fit to be trebled [that is, to give three stripes to one stroke, by reason of the three cords]. If they judge that he can bear twenty, they do not say he shall be beaten with one and twenty, to the end that they may treble the stripes, but they give him eighteen - Maimon in Sanhedrin, chap. xvii., sec. 2. Thus he that was able to bear twenty stripes, had but eighteen: the executioner smote him but six times, for if he had smitten him the seventh they were counted one and twenty stripes, which was above the number adjudged: so he that was adjudged to forty was smitten thirteen times, which being counted one for three, make thirty-nine. And so R. Bechaios, writing hereof, says, The strokes are trebled; that is, every one is three, and three times thirteen are nine and thirty."

Thy brother be vile, or be contemptible - By this God teaches us to hate and despise the sin, not the sinner, who is by this chastisement to be amended; as the power which the Lord hath given is to edification, not to destruction, 2Cor 13:10.

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox, etc. - In Judea, as well as in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, they make use of beeves to tread out the corn; and Dr. Shaw tells us that the people of Barbary continue to tread out their corn after the custom of the East. Instead of beeves they frequently made use of mules and horses, by tying by the neck three or four in like manner together, and whipping them afterwards round about the nedders, as they call the treading floors, (the Libycae areae Hor), where the sheaves lie open and expanded, in the same manner as they are placed and prepared with us for threshing. This indeed is a much quicker way than ours, though less cleanly, for as it is performed in the open air, (Hos 13:3), upon any round level plot of ground, daubed over with cow's dung to prevent as much as possible the earth, sand, or gravel from rising; a great quantity of them all, notwithstanding this precaution, must unavoidably be taken up with the grain, at the same time that the straw, which is their chief and only fodder, is hereby shattered to pieces; a circumstance very pertinently alluded to in 2Kgs 13:7, where the king of Syria is said to have made the Israelites like the dust by threshing - Travels, p. 138. While the oxen were at work some muzzled their mouths to hinder them from eating the corn, which Moses here forbids, instructing the people by this symbolical precept to be kind to their servants and laborers, but especially to those who ministered to them in holy things; so St. Paul applies it 1Cor 9:9, etc.; 1Tim 5:18. Le Clerc considers the injunction as wholly symbolical; and perhaps in this view it was intended to confirm the laws enjoined in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the former chapter. See Dodd and Shaw.

In Bengal, where the same mode of treading cut the corn is used, some muzzle the ox, and others do not, according to the disposition of the farmer - Ward.

And loose his shoe - It is difficult to find the reason of these ceremonies of degradation. Perhaps the shoe was the emblem of power; and by stripping it off, deprivation of that power and authority was represented. Spitting in the face was a mark of the utmost ignominy; but the Jews, who are legitimate judges in this case, say that the spitting was not in his face, but before his face on the ground. And this is the way in which the Asiatics express their detestation of a person to the present day, as Niebuhr and other intelligent travelers assure us. It has been remarked that the prefix ב beth is seldom applied to פני peney; but when it is it signifies as well before as in the face. See Jos 21:44; Jos 23:9; Est 9:2; and Eze 42:12; which texts are supposed to be proofs in point. The act of spitting, whether in or before the face, marked the strong contempt the woman felt for the man who had slighted her. And it appears that the man was ever after disgraced in Israel; for so much is certainly implied in the saying, Deu 25:10 : And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

Divers weights - אבן ואבן eben vaaben, a stone and a stone, because the weights were anciently made of stone, and some had two sets of stones, a light and a heavy. With the latter they bought their wares, by the former they sold them. In our own country this was once a common case; smooth, round, or oval stones were generally chosen by the simple country people for selling their wares, especially such as were sold in pounds and half pounds. And hence the term a stone weight, which is still in use, though lead or iron be the matter that is used as a counterpoise: but the name itself shows us that a stone of a certain weight was the material formerly used as a weight. See the notes on Lev 19:35, Lev 19:36.

Divers measures - Literally, an ephah and an ephah; one large, to buy thy neighbor's wares, another small, to sell thy own by. So there were knaves in all ages, and among all nations. See the notes on Exo 16:16, and Lev 19:35 (note).

Smote the hindmost of thee - See the note on Exo 17:8. It is supposed that this command had its final accomplishment in the death of Haman and his ten sons, Esther iii., vii., ix., as from this time the memory and name of Amalek was blotted out from under heaven, for through every period of their history it might be truly said, They feared not God.

Justify - Acquit him from guilt and false accusations, and free him from punishment.

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.

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.

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, 1Cor 9:9.

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.

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.

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, Psa 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.

His name - That is, his person, and his posterity also. So it was a lasting blot.

A great and a small - The great to buy with, the small for selling.

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.

1 IF there be a controversie between men , and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

About criminal matters, as it follows.

(i. e.) Acquit him from guilt and false accusations, and free him from punishment.

Declare him guilty, and pass sentence of condemnation to suitable punishments upon him.

2 And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy▪ to be beaten : that the judge shall cause him▪ to lie down, and to be beaten before his face , according to his fault by a certain number.

Which the Iews say was the case of all those crimes which the law commands to be punished, without expressing the kind or degree of the punishment.

That the punishment may be duely inflicted, without excess or defect, which otherwise might easily happen through the executioners passion or partiality.

Marginal references: Heb. a son of beating, 1 Sam. 26. 16.

3 Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed : lest if he should exceed, and beat him above these, with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee .

It seems not superstition, but prudent caution, when the Iews would not exceed 39 stripes, 2 Cor. 11. 24. least through mistake or forgetfulness or eagerness they should go beyond their bounds, which they were commanded to keep, but they were not obliged to go to the utmost extent of them.

Who though faulty and chastized, yet still is thy brother by nation, and probably, by religion too.

(i. e.) Should be made contemptible to his brethren, either by this cruel usage of him as if he were a slave or brute beast: or by the desormity or infirmity of body which excessive beating might produce.

Marginal references: 2 Cor. 11. 24.

4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn .

As the Gentiles used to do, having divers devices to keep them from eating when they trod out the corn, which they did in those parts and times by oxen, Hos. 10. 11. either immediately by their hoofs, Isa. 28. 28. Mich. 4. 13. or by drawing carts or other instruments over the corn, Isa. 25. 10. and 28. 27. and 41. 15. Amos 1. 3. Hereby God taught them humanity and kindness even to their beasts that served them, Prov. 12. 10. and much more to their servants or other men who laboured for them, and especially to their Ministers, 1 Cor. 9. 9.

Marginal references: 1 Cor. 9. 9. 1 Tim. 5. 18.; † Heb. thresheth.

5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child , the wife of the dead shall not marry without, unto a stranger : her husbands brother shall go in unto her , and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husbands brother unto her.

Strictly so called, as is evident from ver. 7. Gen. 38. 8. Ruth. 1. 15. Mat. 22. 24, 25.

Either 1. strictly, in the same house or family: which is not probable, because the married brother may be presumed to have left his fathers house and set up a family of his own. Or 2. more largely, in the same town or city, or, at least, countrey. This is added for a releif of their consciences, that if the next brother had removed his habitation into remote parts, or were carried thither into captivity, which God foresaw, would be their case, then the wife of the dead had her liberty to marry to the next kinsman that lived in the same place with her.

Either 1. the first and eldest of them, as it was practised Gen. 38. 6, &c. and expounded Mat. 22. 25. one being oft put for the first, as Gen. 1. 5. and 2. 11. Hag. 1. 1. Mark 16. 2. And the chief care was about the first-born, who were invested with singular priviledges and were types of Christ. Or 2. any of them, for the words are general, and so the practise may seem to have been Ruth 3. and the reason of the law may seem to be in a great measure the same, which was to keep up the distinction as of tribes and families, that so the Messias might be discovered by the family from which he was appointed to proceed, so also of inheritances which were divided among all the brethren, the first-born having onely a double portion.

Heb. no son. But son is oft put for any child, male or female, both in Scripture and other authours, and therefore the Hebrew no son is rendred no child here, as it is in effect Mat. 22. 24. Mark 12. 19. Luk. 20. 28. And indeed this caution was not necessary, when there was a daughter, whose child might be adopted▪ into the name and family of its grandfather.

(i. e.) To one of another family, as that word is oft used.

Except he was married himself, as may appear by other Scriptures, and by the reason of the thing, and, as some adde, from the phrase of dwelling together, to wit, in their fathers family.

Marginal references: Mat. 22. 24. Mar. 12. 19. Luk. 20. 28.; Or, next kinsman.

6 And it shall be that the first-born which she beareth, shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel .

Shall be called and reputed his son. See Ruth 4. 17.

That a family be not lost. So this was a provision that the number of their families might not be diminished.

7 And if the man like not to take his brothers wife, then let his brothers wife go up to the gate, unto the elders, and say, My husbands brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel: he will not perform the duty of my husbands brother.

To revive his brothers name and memory.

Marginal references: Or, next kinsmans wife.; Ruth. 4. 7.

8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him ; and if he stand to it , and say, I like not to take her:

To convince him of the duty and perswade him to it.

If he obstinately refuse it.

9 Then shall his brothers wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot , and spit in his face , and shall answer, and say, So shall it be done unto that man, that will not build up his brothers house.

Partly as a sign of his resignation of all his right to the woman and to her husbands inheritance; for as the shoe was a sign of ones power and right, Psal. 60 8. and 108. 9. so the parting with the shoe was a token of the alienation of such right, and that he would not and henceforth might not enter upon his brothers land; and partly as a note of infamy, to signify that by this unnatural and disingenuous action he was unworthy to be amongst free-men, and fit to be reduced to the condition of the meanest servants or captives, who used to go bare[illegible: 1+ letters]oot, Isa. 20. 2, 4.

As a return of his contempt upon himself. See Numb. 12. 14. Isa. 50. 6. Mat. 26. 67. and 27. 30. This was not done Ruth 4. either because he was not a brother, but a remoter kinsman, and so deserved less shame; or because Ruth did not prosecute him to the utmost, but freely consented to this exchange.

A phrase oft used for the procreation of children and the increase of a family. See Gen. 16. 2. Exod. 1. 21. 1 King 11. 38. 1 Chron. 17. 25.

10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

(i. e.) His person, names being oft put for persons, and his posterity also. So it was a lasting blot.

12 Then thou shalt cut off her hand , thine eye shall not pity her .

Partly because of the great mischief she did to him both to his person and posterity, and partly to deter all women from all immodest and impudent carriages, and to secure that modesty, which is indeed the guardian of all the vertues, as immodesty is an inlet to all vices, as the sad experience of this degenerate age shews: and therefore it is not strange that it is so severely restrained and punished.

Which thou wilst be very apt to do because of the infirmity of her sex and the urgency of the occasion, this being done for the necessary preservation of her husband.

13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small .

The great, either to buy with, or openly to make shew of: the small, for their private use in selling.

Marginal references: Lev. 19. [illegible: 1 word] 36.; Heb. [illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] and a [illegible: 1 word] ▪

17 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth 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 and help was due by the laws of nature and humanity, and whom God had in so glorious a manner appeared for their rescue, which they could not be ignorant of. So this was barbarousness to Israel, and setting the great Jehovah at defiance.

Marginal references: Exod. 1▪ [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

18 How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee , even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary: and he feared not God.

Which God permitted both for the punishment of Israels sins, and to harden and prepare them for the difficulties of their expedition.

19 Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it; that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

Which was in great measure done afterward. See 1 Sam. 15. and 27. 8. and 30. 1, 17. 1 Chron. 4. 43. Esth. 9. 12, 13.

Marginal references: 1 Sam. 1[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

Corporal Punishment. - The rule respecting the corporal punishment to be inflicted upon a guilty man is introduced in Deu 25:1 with the general law, that in a dispute between two men the court was to give right to the man who was right, and to pronounce the guilty man guilty (cf. Exo 22:8 and Exo 23:7).

Deu 25:2

If the guilty man was sentenced to stripes, he was to receive his punishment in the presence of the judge, and not more than forty stripes, that he might not become contemptible in the eyes of the people. הכּות בּן, son of stripes, i.e., a man liable to stripes, like son (child) of death, in 1Sa 20:31. “According to the need of his crime in number,” i.e., as many stripes as his crime deserved.

Deu 25:3

“Forty shall ye beat him, and not add,” i.e., at most forty stripes, and not more. The strokes were administered with a stick upon the back (Pro 10:13; Pro 19:29; Pro 26:3, etc.). This was the Egyptian mode of whipping, as we may see depicted upon the monuments, when the culprits lie flat upon the ground, and being held fast by the hands and feet, receive their strokes in the presence of the judge (vid., Wilkinson, ii. p. 11, and Rosellini, ii. 3, p. 274, 78). The number forty was not to be exceeded, because a larger number of strokes with a stick would not only endanger health and life, but disgrace the man: “that thy brother do not become contemptible in thine eyes.” If he had deserved a severer punishment, he was to be executed. In Turkey the punishments inflicted are much more severe, viz., from fifty to a hundred lashes with a whip; and they are at the same time inhuman (see v. Tornauw, Moslem. Recht, p. 234). The number, forty, was probably chosen with reference to its symbolical significance, which it had derived from Gen 7:12 onwards, as the full measure of judgment. The Rabbins fixed the number at forty save one (vid., 2Co 11:24), from a scrupulous fear of transgressing the letter of the law, in case a mistake should be made in the counting; yet they felt no conscientious scruples about using a whip of twisted thongs instead of a stick (vid., tract. Macc. iii. 12; Buxtorf, Synag. Jud. pp. 522-3; and Lundius, Jüd. Heiligth. p. 472).

Deu 25:4

The command not to put a muzzle upon the ox when threshing, is no doubt proverbial in its nature, and even in the context before us is not intended to apply merely literally to an ox employed in threshing, but to be understood in the general sense in which the Apostle Paul uses it in 1Co 9:9 and 1Ti 5:18, viz., that a labourer was not to be deprived of his wages. As the mode of threshing presupposed here - namely, with oxen yoked together, and driven to and fro over the corn that had been strewn upon the floor, that they might kick out the grains with their hoofs - has been retained to the present day in the East, so has also the custom of leaving the animals employed in threshing without a muzzle (vid., Hoest, Marokos, p. 129; Wellst. Arabien, i. p. 194; Robinson, Pal. ii. pp. 206-7, iii. p. 6), although the Mosaic injunctions are not so strictly observed by the Christians as by the Mohammedans (Robinson, ii. p. 207).

Deu 25:5-10

On Levirate Marriages. - Deu 25:5, Deu 25:6. If brothers lived together, and one of them died childless, the wife of the deceased was not to be married outside (i.e., away from the family) to a strange man (one not belonging to her kindred); her brother-in-law was to come to her and take her for his wife, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her. יבּם, denom. from יבם, a brother-in-law, husband’s brother, lit., to act the brother-in-law, i.e., perform the duty of a brother-in-law, which consisted in his marrying his deceased brother’s widow, and begetting a son of children with her, the first-born of whom was “to stand upon the name of his deceased brother,” i.e., be placed in the family of the deceased, and be recognised as the heir of his property, that his name (the name of the man who had died childless) might not be wiped out or vanish out of Israel. The provision, “without having a son” (ben), has been correctly interpreted by the lxx, Vulg., Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 23), and the Rabbins, as signifying childless (having no seed, Mat 22:25); for if the deceased had simply a daughter, according to Num 27:4., the perpetuation of his house and name was to be ensured through her. The obligation of a brother-in-law’s marriage only existed in cases where the brothers had lived together, i.e., in one and the same place, not necessarily in one house or with a common domestic establishment and home (vid., Gen 13:6; Gen 36:7). - This custom of a brother-in-law’s (Levirate) marriage, which is met with in different nations, and as an old traditional custom among the Israelites (see at Gen 38:8.), had its natural roots in the desire inherent in man, who is formed for immortality, and connected with the hitherto undeveloped belief in an eternal life, to secure a continued personal existence for himself and immorality for his name, through the perpetuation of his family and in the life of the son who took his place. This desire was not suppressed in Israel by divine revelation, but rather increased, inasmuch as the promises given to the patriarchs were bound up with the preservation and propagation of their seed and name. The promise given to Abraham for his seed would of necessity not only raise the begetting of children in the religious views of the Israelites into the work desired by God and well-pleasing to Him, but would also give this significance to the traditional custom of preserving the name and family by the substitution of a marriage of duty, that they would thereby secure to themselves and their family a share in the blessing of promise. Moses therefore recognised this custom as perfectly justifiable; but he sought to restrain it within such limits, that it should not present any impediment to the sanctification of marriage aimed at by the law. He took away the compulsory character, which it hitherto possessed, by prescribing in Deu 25:7., that if the surviving brother refused to marry his widowed sister-in-law, she was to bring the matter into the gate before the elders of the town (vid., Deu 21:19), i.e., before the magistrates; and if the brother-in-law still persisted in his refusal, she was to take his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face, with these words: “So let it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.”

The taking off of the shoe was an ancient custom in Israel, adopted, according to Rth 4:7, in cases of redemption and exchange, for the purpose of confirming commercial transactions. The usage arose from the fact, that when any one took possession of landed property he did so by treading upon the soil, and asserting his right of possession by standing upon it in his shoes. In this way the taking off of the shoe and handing it to another became a symbol of the renunciation of a man’s position and property, - a symbol which was also common among the Indians and the ancient Germans (see my Archäologie, ii. p. 66). But the custom was an ignominious one in such a case as this, when the shoe was publicly taken off the foot of the brother-in-law by the widow whom he refused to marry. He was thus deprived of the position which he ought to have occupied in relation to her and to his deceased brother, or to his paternal house; and the disgrace involved in this was still further heightened by the fact that his sister-in-law spat in his face. This is the meaning of the words (cf. Num 12:14), and not merely spit on the ground before his eyes, as Saalschütz and others as well as the Talmudists (tr. Jebam. xii. 6) render it, for the purpose of diminishing the disgrace. “Build up his brother’s house,” i.e., lay the foundation of a family or posterity for him (cf. Gen 16:2). - In addition to this, the unwilling brother-in-law was to receive a name of ridicule in Israel: “House of the shoe taken off” (הנּעל חלוּץ, taken off as to his shoe; cf. Ewald, §288, b.), i.e., of the barefooted man, equivalent to “the miserable fellow;” for it was only in miserable circumstances that the Hebrews went barefoot (vid., Isa 20:2-3; Micah 1:8 2 Sam. 15:30). If the brother-in-law bore this reproach upon himself and his house, he was released from his duty as a brother-in-law. By these regulations the brother-in-law’s marriage was no doubt recognised as a duty of affection towards his deceased brother, but it was not made a command, the neglect of which would involve guilt and punishment. Within these limits the brother-in-law’s marriage might co-exist with the prohibition of marriage with a brother’s wife; “whereas, if the deceased brother had a son or children, such a marriage was forbidden as prejudicial to the fraternal relation. In cases where the deceased was childless, it was commanded as a duty of affection for the building up of the brother’s house, and the preservation of his family and name. By the former prohibition, the house (family) of the brother was kept in its integrity, whilst by the latter command its permanent duration was secured. In both cases the deceased brother was honoured, and the fraternal that the; affection preserved as the moral foundation of his house” (vid. my Archdologie, pp. 64, 65).

Deu 25:11-12 “But in order that the great independence which is here accorded to a childless widow in relation to her brother-in-law, might not be interpreted as a false freedom granted to the female sex” (Baumgarten), the law is added immediately afterwards, that a woman whose husband was quarrelling with another, and who should come to his assistance by laying hold of the secret parts of the man who was striking her husband, should have her hand cut off.

Deu 25:13-16

The duty of integrity in trade is once more enforced in Deu 25:13-16 (as in Lev 19:35-36). “Stone and stone,” i.e., two kinds of stones for weighing (cf. Psa 12:3), viz., large ones for buying and small ones for selling. On the promise in Deu 25:15, see Deu 4:26; Deu 5:16; Deu 25:16, as in Deu 22:5; Deu 18:12, etc. In the concluding words, Deu 25:16, “all that do unrighteously,” Moses sums up all breaches of the law.

Deu 25:17-19

But whilst the Israelites were to make love the guiding principle of their conduct in their dealings with a neighbour, and even with strangers and foes, this love was not to degenerate into weakness or indifference towards open ungodliness. To impress this truth upon the people, Moses concludes the discourse on the law by reminding them of the crafty enmity manifested towards them by Amalek on their march out of Egypt, and with the command to root out the Amalekites (cf. Exo 17:9-16). This heathen nation had come against Israel on its journey, viz., at Rephidim in Horeb, and had attacked its rear: “All the enfeebled behind thee, whilst thou wast faint and weary, without fearing God.” זנּב, lit., to tail, hence to attack or destroy the rear of an army or of a travelling people (cf. Jos 10:19). For this reason, when the Lord should have given Israel rest in the land of its inheritance, it was to root out the remembrance of Amalek under heaven. (On the execution of this command, see 1 Sam 15.) “Thou shalt not forget it:” an emphatic enforcement of the “remember” in Deu 25:17.

To the exposition of the commandments and rights of Israel Moses adds, in closing, another ordinance respecting those gifts, which were most intimately connected with social and domestic life, viz., the first-fruits and second tithes, for the purpose of giving the proper consecration to the attitude of the nation towards its Lord and God.

Stripes Not to Exceed Forty. (b. c. 1451.)

1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. 2 And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. 3 Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee. 4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

Here is, I. A direction to the judges in scourging malefactors, v. 1-3. 1. It is here supposed that, if a man be charged with a crime, the accuser and the accused (Actor and Reus) should be brought face to face before the judges, that the controversy may be determined. 2. If a man were accused of a crime, and the proof fell short, so that the charge could not be made out against him by the evidence, then he was to be acquitted: "Thou shalt justify the righteous," that is, "him that appears to the court to be so." If the accusation be proved, then the conviction of the accused is a justification of the accuser, as righteous in the prosecution. 3. If the accused were found guilty, judgment must be given against him: "Thou shalt condemn the wicked;" for to justify the wicked is as much an abomination to the Lord as it is to condemn the righteous, Prov. xvii. 15. 4. If the crime were not made capital by the law, then the criminal must be beaten. A great many precepts we have met with which have not any particular penalty annexed to them, the violation of most of which, according to the constant practice of the Jews, was punished by scourging, from which no person's rank or quality did exempt him if he were a delinquent, but with this proviso, that he should never be upbraided with it, nor should it be looked upon as leaving any mark of infamy or disgrace upon him. The directions here given for the scourging of criminals are, (1.) That it be done solemnly; not tumultuously through the streets, but in open court before the judge's face, and with so much deliberation as that the stripes might be numbered. The Jews say that while execution was in doing the chief justice of the court read with a loud voice Deut. xxviii. 58, 59, and xxix. 9, and concluded with those words (Ps. lxxviii. 38), But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity. Thus it was made a sort of religious act, and so much the more likely to reform the offender himself and to be a warning to others. (2.) That it be done in proportion to the crime, according to his fault, that some crimes might appear, as they are, more heinous than others, the criminal being beaten with many stripes, to which perhaps there is an allusion, Luke xii. 47, 48. (3.) That how great soever the crime were the number of stripes should never exceed forty, v. 3. Forty save one was the common usage, as appears, 2 Cor. xi. 24. It seems, they always gave Paul as many stripes as ever they gave to any malefactor whatsoever. They abated one for fear of having miscounted (though one of the judges was appointed to number the stripes), or because they would never go to the utmost rigour, or because the execution was usually done with a whip of three lashes, so that thirteen stripes (each one being counted for three) made up thirty-nine, but one more by that reckoning would have been forty-two. The reason given for this is, lest thy brother should seem vile unto thee. He must still be looked upon as a brother (2 Thess. iii. 15), and his reputation as such was preserved by this merciful limitation of his punishment. It saves him from seeming vile to his brethren, when God himself by his law takes this care of him. Men must not be treated as dogs; nor must those seem vile in our sight to whom, for aught we know, God may yet give grace to make them precious in his sight.

II. A charge to husbandmen not to hinder their cattle from eating when they were working, if meat were within their reach, v. 4. This instance of the beast that trod out the corn (to which there is an allusion in that of the prophet, Hos. x. 11) is put for all similar instances. That which makes this law very remarkable above its fellows (and which countenances the like application of other such laws) is that it is twice quoted in the New Testament to show that it is the duty of the people to give their ministers a comfortable maintenance, 1 Cor. ix. 9, 10, and 1 Tim. v. 17, 18. It teaches us in the letter of it to make much of the brute-creatures that serve us, and to allow them not only the necessary supports for their life, but the advantages of their labour; and thus we must learn not only to be just, but kind, to all that are employed for our good, not only to maintain but to encourage them, especially those that labour among us in the word and doctrine, and so are employed for the good of our better part.

Marriage of a Brother's Wife. (b. c. 1451.)

5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. 6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. 7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; 9 Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed. 11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: 12 Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.

Here is, I. The law settled concerning the marrying of the brother's widow. It appears from the story of Judah's family that this had been an ancient usage (Gen. xxxviii. 8), for the keeping up of distinct families. The case put is a case that often happens, of a man's dying without issue, it may be in the prime of his time, soon after his marriage, and while his brethren were yet so young as to be unmarried. Now in this case, 1. The widow was not to marry again into any other family, unless all the relations of her husband did refuse her, that the estate she was endowed with might not be alienated. 2. The husband's brother, or next of kin, must marry her, partly out of respect to her, who, having forgotten her own people and her father's house, should have all possible kindness shown her by the family into which she was married; and partly out of respect to the deceased husband, that though he was dead and gone he might not be forgotten, nor lost out of the genealogies of his tribe; for the first-born child, which the brother or next kinsman should have by the widow, should be denominated from him that was dead, and entered in the genealogy as his child, v. 5, 6. Under that dispensation we have reason to think men had not so clear and certain a prospect of living themselves on the other side death as we have now, to whom life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel; and therefore they could not but be the more desirous to live in their posterity, which innocent desire was in some measure gratified by this law, an expedient being found out that, though a man had no child by his wife, yet his name should not be put out of Israel, that is, out of the pedigree, or, which is equivalent, remain there under the brand of childlessness. The Sadducees put a case to our Saviour upon this law, with a design to perplex the doctrine of the resurrection by it (Matt. xxii. 24, &c.), perhaps insinuating that there was no need of maintaining the immortality of the soul and a future state, since the law had so well provided for the perpetuating of men's names and families in the world. But, 3. If the brother, or next of kin, declined to do this good office to the memory of him that was gone, what must be done in that case? Why, (1.) He shall not be compelled to do it, v. 7. If he like her not, he is at liberty to refuse her, which, some think, was not permitted in this case before this law of Moses. Affection is all in all to the comfort of the conjugal relation; this is a thing which cannot be forced, and therefore the relation should not be forced without it. (2.) Yet he shall be publicly disgraced for not doing it. The widow, as the person most concerned for the name and honour of the deceased, was to complain to the elders of his refusal; if he persist in it, she must pluck off his shoe, and spit in his face, in open court (or, as the Jewish doctors moderate it, spit before his face), thus to fasten a mark of infamy upon him, which was to remain with his family after him, v. 8-10. Note, Those justly suffer in their own reputation who do not do what they ought to preserve the name and honour of others. He that would not build up his brother's house deserved to have this blemish put upon his own, that it should be called the house of him that had his shoe loosed, in token that he deserved to go barefoot. In the case of Ruth we find this law executed (Ruth iv. 7), but because, upon the refusal of the next kinsman, there was another ready to perform the duty of a husband's brother, it was that other that plucked off the shoe, and not the widow—Boaz, and not Ruth.

II. A law for the punishing of an immodest woman, v. 11, 12. The woman that by the foregoing law was to complain against her husband's brother for not marrying her, and to spit in his face before the elders, needed a good measure of assurance; but, lest the confidence which that law supported should grow to an excess unbecoming the sex, here is a very severe but just law to punish impudence and immodesty. 1. The instance of it is confessedly scandalous to the highest degree. A woman could not do it unless she were perfectly lost to all virtue and honour. 2. The occasion is such as might in part excuse it; it was to help her husband out of the hands of one that was too hard for him. Now if the doing of it in a passion, and with such a good intention, was to be so severely punished, much more when it was done wantonly and in lust. 3. The punishment was that her hand should be cut off; and the magistrates must not pretend to be more merciful than God: Thy eye shall not pity her. Perhaps our Saviour alludes to this law when he commands us to cut off the right hand that offends us, or is an occasion of sin to us. Better put the greatest hardships that can be upon the body than ruin the soul for ever. Modesty is the hedge of chastity, and therefore ought to be very carefully preserved and kept up by both sexes.

Amalek to Be Destroyed. (b. c. 1451.)

13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. 14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. 15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 16 For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. 17 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; 18 How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. 19 Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

Here is, I. A law against deceitful weights and measures: they must not only not use them, but they must not have them, not have them in the bag, not have them in the house (v. 13, 14); for, if they had them, they would be strongly tempted to use them. They must not have a great weight and measure to buy by and a small one to sell by, for that was to cheat both ways, when either was bad enough; as we read of those that made the ephah small, in which they measured the corn they sold, and the shekel great, by which they weighed the money they received for it, Amos viii. 5. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, v. 15. That which is the rule of justice must itself be just; if that be otherwise, it is a constant cheat. This had been taken care of before, Lev. xix. 35, 36. This law is enforced with two very good reasons:—1. That justice and equity will bring down upon us the blessing of God. The way to have our days lengthened, and to prosper, is to be just and fair in all our dealings Honesty is the best policy. 2. That fraud and injustice will expose us to the curse of God, v. 16. Not only unrighteousness itself, but all that do unrighteously, are an abomination to the Lord. And miserable is that man who is abhorred by his Maker. How hateful, particularly, all the arts of deceit are to God, Solomon several times observes, Prov. xi. 1; xx. 10, 23; and the apostle tells us that the Lord is the avenger of all such as overreach and defraud in any matter, 1 Thess. iv. 6.

II. A law for the rooting out of Amalek. Here is a just weight and a just measure, that, as Amalek had measured to Israel, so it should be measure to Amalek again.

1. The mischief Amalek did to Israel must be here remembered, v. 17, 18. When it was first done it was ordered to be recorded (Exod. xvii. 14-16), and here the remembrance of it is ordered to be preserved, not in personal revenge (for that generation which suffered by the Amalekites was gone, so that those who now lived, and their posterity, could not have any personal resentment of the injury), but in a zeal for the glory of God (which was insulted by the Amalekites), that throne of the Lord against which the hand of Amalek was stretched out. The carriage of the Amalekites towards Israel is here represented, (1.) As very base and disingenuous. They had no occasion at all to quarrel with Israel, nor did they give them any notice, by a manifesto or declaration of war; but took them at an advantage, when they had just come out of the house of bondage, and, for aught that appeared to them, were only going to sacrifice to God in the wilderness. (2.) As very barbarous and cruel; for they smote those that were more feeble, whom they should have succoured. The greatest cowards are commonly the most cruel; while those that have the courage of a man will have the compassion of a man. (3.) As very impious and profane: they feared not God. If they had had any reverence for the majesty of the God of Israel, which they saw a token of in the cloud, or any dread of his wrath, which they lately heard of the power of over Pharaoh, they durst not have made this assault upon Israel. Well, here was the ground of the quarrel: and it shows how God takes what is done against his people as done against himself, and that he will particularly reckon with those that discourage and hinder young beginners in religion, that (as Satan's agents) set upon the weak and feeble, either to divert them or to disquiet them, and offend his little ones.

2. This mischief must in due time be revenged, v. 19. When their wars were finished, by which they were to settle their kingdom and enlarge their coast, then they must make war upon Amalek (v. 19), not merely to chase them, but to consume them, to blot out the remembrance of Amalek. It was an instance of God's patience that he deferred the vengeance so long, which should have led the Amalekites to repentance; yet an instance of fearful retribution that the posterity of Amalek, so long after, were destroyed for the mischief done by their ancestors to the Israel of God, that all the world might see, and say, that he who toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye. It was nearly 400 years after this that Saul was ordered to put this sentence in execution (1 Sam. xv.), and was rejected of God because he did not do it effectually, but spared some of that devoted nation, in contempt, not only of the particular orders he received from Samuel, but of this general command here given by Moses, which he could not be ignorant of. David afterwards made some destruction of them; and the Simeonites, in Hezekiah's time, smote the rest that remained (1 Chron. iv. 43); for when God judges he will overcome.

CHAP. XXV.

IF there be a controversie betweene men, and they come neere unto judgment, and they judge them; then they shall justifie the just, and condemne for wicked the wicked.

And it shall be, if the wicked he worthy to be beaten, that the Iudge shall cause him to lie downe, and to bee beaten before his face, according to his wickednesse, by a number. Forty (stripes) hee may smite him; hee shall not adde moe, lest if hee adde to smite him above these with many stripes, then thy brother be vile in thine eies.

Thou shalt not mousell the Oxe when hee treadeth out the corne.

If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no sonne, the wife of the dead shall not be to one without, to a man that is a stranger, her husbands brother shall goe in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and do the duty of an husbands brother unto her. And it shall bee, that the first-borne which she beareth, shall stand up in the name of his brother, which is dead, that his name be not blotted out of Israel. And if the man like not to take his brothers wife, then let his brothers wife goe up to the gate, unto the Elders, and say, My husbands brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel; hee is not willing to doe the duty of an husbands brother unto mee. And the Elders of his citie shall call him and speake unto him: and if he stand and say, I like not to take her; Then shall his brothers wife come neere unto him in the eies of the Elders, and shee shall pull off his shooe from off his foot, and shall spit in his face: and shee shall answer and say; So shall it bee done unto the man which will not build up his brothers house. And his name shall bee called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shooe pulled off.

When men strive together, a man and his brother, and the wife of the one draweth neere for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, & taketh hold by his secrets; Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eie shall not spare.

Thou shalt not have in thy bag a stone and a stone, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house an Ephah and an Ephah, a great and a small. A perfect stone & a just shalt thou have, a perfect Ephah and a just shalt thou have, that thy daies may be lengthened in the land which Iehovah thy God giveth unto thee. For hee is an abomination to Iehovah thy God, whosoever doth these things, whosoever doth unrighteousnesse.

Remember that which Amalek did unto thee by the way when ye were come forth out of Egypt. How hee met thee by the way, and smote the hind most of thee, all that were feeble behind thee, and thou wast faint and weary; and hee feared not God. Therefore it shall be when Iehovah thy God hath given rest unto thee, from all thine enemies round about, in the land which Iehovah thy God giveth unto thee for an inheritance to possesse it, thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens: thou shalt not forget it.

Annotations. A [illegible: 1 letter]o[illegible: 1 letter]t[illegible: 1 letter]oversie] a plea, or strife; in Greeke, a contradiction. and they] or, that they (the Iudges) may judge them. And this Law concerneth all Courts, the highest of 71 Iudges, the Court of twenty three, and the Court of three; the lowest of which judged inferiour causes and money matters, and had authority to beat malefactors▪ but not to put to death. justifie] that is, pronounce just, & so absolve or acquit in judgment. condemne for wicked] or, pronounce wicked, and so tendemne in judgment; as the Greeke translateth it, condemne. This is contrary to the former, and so the Apostle opposeth them, saying, It is God that justifieth, who is hee that condemneth? Rom. 8. 33. 34. This law is perpetuall, the transgression whereof is a great sinne; for, Hee that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the LORD, Prov. 17. 15. Vers. 2. worthy to be beaten] Hebr. a son of beating, which the Greeke translateth, worthy of stripes; and the Chaldee, a sonne guilty of, or worthy to bee beaten. So the sonne (or childe) of hell, Matt. 23. 15. is one worthy of hell fire; the son of death, in 1 Sam. 20. 31. is one that was worthy of death, and therefore should be killed: and in the Gospell, If the sonne of peace bee there, (in the house) Luk. 10. 6. which another Evangelist explaineth thus, If the house be worthy, Matt. 10. 13. Now, who they were that deserved beating, are by the Hebrewes shewed thus; Hee that transgresseth against a prohibition, whereby the (contrary) commandement to be done, is broken off, and they warned him of it, and said unto him, Doe not this thing, for if thou doest it, and keepest not that which is commanded concerning it, thou shalt be beaten; and he transgresseth and keepeth not the commandement, loe he is to be beaten. Maimony in Sanhedrin, chap. 16. sect. 4. More particularly, Th[illegible: 1 letter]se are to be beaten, whosoever transgresseth against a prohibition, for which he deserveth to be cut off, but is not to bee put to death by the Synedrion, as he that eateth fat, or bloud, or leven at the Passeover. Likewise whosoever transgresseth against a prohibition for which they are guilty of death by the band of God: as hee that eateth of fruits, before the first-fruits, tithes, &c. be paid; and a Priest that is uncleane, and eateth of the heave-offering which is cleane. Likewise who so transgresseth against a prohibition, wherein there is an act (or worke:) as hee that boyleth a Kid in his mothers milke [which the Hebrewes understand of eating flesh with milke;] or that weareth Linsey-woolsey. But a prohibition wherein is no act, as to walke as a tale-bearer, to revenge or beare grudge, or receive a false report, &c. for such he is not beaten: [nor for any other wherein there is an act, some few excepted.] Every prohibition, for which they are to be put to death by the Magistrate, as adulterie, working on the Sabbath, &c. they are not beaten therefore. So every prohibition, for which they are to make satisfaction, as robbery, theft, &c. they are not beaten for it. And every prohibition▪ whereby the (contrary) commandement is broken off, as, Thou shalt not take the dam with the young, (Deut. 22. 6.) Thou shalt not wholly rid the corner of thy field, (Levit. 19. 9.) &c. they are not beaten for it, unlesse they keepe not the commanded thing concerning them; [that is, unlesse they omit the letting of the dam goe, Deut. 22. 7. and the leaving of the corner for the poore, Levit. 19. 10.] And for a prohibition (implied) in the generals, they are not beaten: but all other prohibitions which are in the Law, they are to bee beaten for doing them. What is that prohibition (comprised) in the generals? It is one prohibition which generally compriseth many things, as, yee shall not eat with the bloud, (Levit. 19. 26.) And so when it is said. Doe not such a thing, and such a thing, forasmuch as there is not a particular prohibition set before every one of them, he is not to be beaten for every one of them, unlesse they bee divided in other prohibitions, or said by word of mouth that they are divided. As where it is said, Eat not of it raw or sodden, (Exodus. 12. 9.) hee is not beaten (for eating of it raw and sodden) twice, but once. Of the first-fruits hee saith, Yee shall not eat bread, and parched corne, and greene eares, (Levit. 23. 14.) a man for eating these three is to bee beaten thrice; by word of mouth wee have beene taught, that these are divided (or severall.) It is said (in Deut. 18. 10.) Let there not bee found in thee, any that maketh his sonne or his daughter to passe thorow the fire; a diviner of divinations, an observer of times: although all these things be comprehended generally in one prohibition, yet are they divided in other prohibitions, as (in Levit. 19. 26.) ye shall not observe fortunes, and yee shall not observe times: to teach, that every one of these is a prohibition by it selfe severall; and so all other of like sort. Maimony in Sanhedrin, ch. 18. sect. 1, 2, 3. Finally they say, All prohibitions, for which cutting off is due, but not death by the Magistrate, for which men are to be beaten, are one and twenty. All for which death is due by the hand of God, which are prohibitions wherein an act is, for which men are to be beaten, are eighteene. All prohibitions in the Law, for which there is neither cutting off due, nor death by the Magistrate, for which men are to be beaten, are an hundred sixtie and eight. So there are found in all which are to be beaten, 207. Maimony ibidem, chap. 19. All which are there particularly related, but would be too long here to repeat. the Iudge] that is, the Iudges, as the Greeke translateth: for one Iudge sate not alone to judge controversies. Neither was any man to be beaten without witnesses of his crime. No man is to bee beaten but by witnesses and evidence, and they are to examine the witnesses by inquiry and diligent search, even as they do in judgments of life and death. Maimony in Sanhedrin, chap. 16. sect. 4. cause him to lie downe] or, to be laid downe, and bound fast: the manner is said to bee thus, both his hands are fast bound unto a post, this way and that way, and the minister of the congregation [the executioner] taketh hold on his garments, if they rend they rend, or if they seam-rend they seam-rend, untill he make bare down to his heart, for he is not to beat him upon his clothes. And hee that is beaten neither standeth nor sitteth, but boweth downe. Maim. in Sanhed. c. 16. s. 8. 10. to be beaten] or smitten; in Greeke, scourged. The Hebrewes say, There was a stone laid behinde him, on which the minister that did beat him stood, who had in his hand a scourge of a bulls hide, doubled to two, and two to foure; and two scourges (or thongs) of an asses hide, that slided up and downe in it: and the bredth of the scourge was an hand bredth▪ and the length so as it might reach to the fore-part of his belly; and the handle of the scourge was an hand bredth long. Hee that did beat him, lifted up the scourge with both his hands, and smote him with one hand, with all his might, &c. Maim. in Sanhedrin, ch. 16. sect. 8. before his face] the Greeke translateth, before them, meaning the Iudges, who were to see him beaten. And they say, that The greatest of the Iudges read all the while that he was in beating, (that in Deut. 28. 58. &c.) If thou wilt not observe to doe all the words of this law, &c. then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderfull, &c. And the second of the Iudges counted (the number of the strokes) and the third said unto the minister, Smite▪) all the while that hee smote, hee did smite at his bidding. Maimony ibidem, chap. 16. sect. 11. according to his wickednesse] or, as the Chaldee interpreteth it, according to the sufficiency (the proportion) of his sinne: but the Greeke saith, according to his impiety. So that the Iudges might moderate his blowes, according to the nature of his trespasse, and the mans ability to beare the stripes; but they might not exceed the number se[illegible: 1 letter] here of God. They may not adde moe than forty, though hee bee as strong and Iusty as Sampson: but they may abate from him that is weake, &c. If they have judged him to have forty stripes, and after that they have begun to beat him, they see him to be weake, and say, he cannot beare moe than these nine or twelve stripes which he hath received, then hee is free. If they adjudged him to receive twelve, and after that hee is beaten, they see him strong, and able to beare moe, he is free notwithstanding, and may not bee beaten with moe than they adjudged him. Who so deserveth many beatings, for many transgressions that hee hath done, or for one that deserveth many, if they adjudge him one measure (or judgment) hee is beaten and discharged; if not, they beat him, and hee healeth himselfe, and then they beat him againe. Who so is beaten by the Magistrates for a sinne which deserveth cutting off, and is beaten the second time for the same sinne; as he that eateth [illegible: 1 letter]at (Levit. 7. 25.) and is beaten for it, and eateth fat the second time, and is beaten for it; if he eat it the third time, they beat him not, but put him into Little-ease, a narrow place as high as him-selfe, wherein he cannot lie downe, and they give him the bread of distresse, and water of affliction, till his bowels be shrunke, and he be sicke: and afterward they feed him with barley till his belly burst. Maimony in Sanhedrin, chap. 17. sect. 1, 2, 4. and chap. 18. sect. 4. by a number] that is, by a certaine number, determined by the Iudges. Vers. 3. Forty stripes] this number, forty the Scripture useth sundry times in cases of humiliation, affliction, and punishment: as Moses twise humbled himselfe in fasting and praier forty daies and forty nights, Deut. 9. 9, 18. Elias fasted forty dayes, 1 King. 19. 8. and our Saviour, Matth. 4. 2. Forty yeares Israel was afflicted in the wildernesse for▪ their sinnes, Numb. 14. 33, 34. and forty yeares Egypt was desolate for trecherous dealing with Israel, Ezik. 29. 11, 12, 13. Forty daies every woman was in purification from her uncleannesse, for a man-childe that shee bare, and twise forty daies for a woman-childe, Levit. 12. 4. 5. Forty daies and forty nights it rained at Noes flood, Gen. 7. 12. Forty daies did Ezekiel beare the iniquity of the house of Iudah, Ezek. 4. 6. Ionas preached, yet forty daies and Nimveh shall bee over throwne▪ Ion. 3. 4. Forty yeares space the Canaanites had to repent, after Israel came out of Egypt, and wandred so many yeares in the wildernesse, Numb. 14. 33. And thrice forty years the old world had No[illegible: 1 letter] preaching unto them repentance, Gen. 6. 3. It was forty daies ere Christ ascended into heaven, after [illegible: 1 letter]his resurrection, Acts 1. 3,—9. And forty yeares space of repentance hee gave unto the Iewes, from the time that they killed him, before hee destroyed their Citie and Temple, by the Romans. By the Hebrewes this law is expounded thus, How many stripes doe they beat (an offender) with? with forty lacking one: as it is written (Deut. 25. 2, 3.) by number forty, that is, the number which is next to forty. Thalmud. Bab. in Maccoth, chap. 3. This their understanding is very ancient, for so they practised in the Apostles daies; as Paul testifieth, Of the Iewes five times received I forty (stripes) save one, 2 Cor. 11. 24. But their reason which they give is not solid: as when they say, If it had beene written, FORTIE IN NVMBER, I would say it were full forty: but being written, in number forty, it meaneth the number which reckoneth forty next after it, that is, thirty nine. By this exposition they confound the verses, and take away the distinction. I thinke rather this custome was taken up, by reason of the manner of their beating forespoken of, which was with a scourge that had three cords, so that every stroke was counted for three stripes, and then they could not give even forty, but either thirty nine, or forty two, which was above the number set of God. And hereof they write thus: When they judge (or condemne) a sinner to so many (stripes) as he can beare, they judge not but by strokes that are sit to be trebled, [that is, to give three stripes at one stroke by reason of the three cords.] If they judge that he can beare twenty, they doe not say he shall be beaten with one and twenty, to the end that they may treble (the stripes) but they give him eighteene. Maimony in Sanhedrin, chap. 17. sect. 2. Thus hee that was able to beare twenty stripes, had but eighteene; the Executioner smote him but six times, for if he had smitten hm the seventh, they were counted one and twenty stripes, which was above the number adjudged: so he that was adjudged to forty, was smitten thirteene times, which being counted one for three, make thirty nine. And so R. Bechaias writing hereof saith, The strokes are trebled (that is, every one is three) and three times thirteene are nine and thirty. hee may smite] in Greeke, they may scourge, (or, shall scourge,) implying all the Iudges with the Executioner: so after, and they shall not adde. not adde] not exceed the number set of God. The Hebrews say, If he that is beaten die under the hand of the Executioner, hee is free; but if hee adde one stripe more to the measure, and he die, then the Executioner is banished for it. If he die not, yet he transgresseth against this prohibition: and so for all other that smite their neighbours. For if when the law giveth leave to smite, the Scripture commandeth not to smite a man (more than the appointed measure) for his wickednesse, much more any other man. Therefore who so smiteth his neighbour, though hee smite a servant with a stroke, for which there is not due a farthing recompence, he is to be beaten: but if there bee recompence to be made for it by money, no man payeth, and is beaten also. Maim. in Sanhedrin, ch. 16. s. 12. with many stripes] or, with any moe stripes: Hebr. with much smiting. thy brother be vile] or, be contemptible▪ By this God teacheth to hate and despise the sin, not the sinner, who is by this chastisement to bee amended: as the power which the Lord hath given, is to edification, and not to destruction, 2 Cor. 13. 10. This vilenesse or ignominy is opposed to glory or honour, Esay 16. 14. The Greeke translateth it, Aschemonesei, that is, be ignominious, or behave himselfe unseemely: which word Paul useth when he saith, Love doth not behave it selfe unseemely, or is not ignominious, or contumelious, 1 Cor. 13. 5. From this the Hebrewes teach, that whosoever hath sinned and is beaten, hee returneth to his dignitie, because it is said, Then thy brother be vile in thine [illegible: 1 letter]ies; after he is beaten, loe he is thy brother. And all that deserve cutting off, when they are beaten, are free from cutting off. The high Priest when he sinneth, is beaten by three, as all other of the people, and returneth to his highnesse (or dignity:) but the Chiefe of the Session, when he sinneth, they beat him, and he returneth not to his first estate; yea, hee returneth not to be as one of the rest of the Synedrion, for they ascend in holinesse, and descend not. Maim. in Sanhedrin, ch. 17. s. 7, 8, 9. Vers. 4. the oxe] or the asse, or any other beast: the oxe is named but for an instance. And if the beast may not bee mouseled, that is, have his mouth tied up (as the Chaldee translateth) but is to eat of that wherein he worketh, how much more men. Hereupon the Apostle saith, Doth God take care for Oxen? or saith hee it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and hee that thresheth in hope, should be partaker of his hope, 1 Cor. 9. 9, 10. See also the notes on Deutero. 22. 10. when hee treadeth] or, in his treading or threshing: which the Greeke (followed also by the Apostle) translateth, treading or threshing. They used in Israel to thresh their corne, not onely with flaile as wee doe, but with the seet of beasts they trod it out, Hos. 10. 11. and sometime with Cart-wheeles, as Esay 28. 27, 28. So they were wont in other nations, as the Romans did beat out their corne with staves, or tread it out with cattell. Columel. de re rust. lib. 2. cap. 21. Spiritually this signified the labour of the Ministers of the Word, preparing the bread of life for the soule, as the Apostle sheweth, saying, Let the elders that rule well bee counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine: for the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not mousell the oxe that treadeth out the corne, 1 Tim. 5. 17, 18. and to this the Proverbe agreeth, Where no oxen are, the crib is cleane (or empty) Prov. 14. 4. Touching this Law the Hebrewes write thus; A beast is to eat all the while that it worketh in things that grow out of the ground, whether they bee yet upon the ground, or pulled up: hee is also to eat of the burdens that are upon his backe, &c. whosoever restraineth a beast from eating, in the time of his working, hee is to be beaten, Deut. 25. 4. whether it bee an oxe, or other kinde of beast, uncleane or cleane, and whether he tread out the corne, or doe any other worke in that which groweth out of the ground; and it is not said, the oxe when hee treadeth, but for an instance. And whether hee mousell him at the time of his worke, or before the time, and then doth worke with him; yea, though hee mousell him by voice, [that is, fraieth him by his voice from eating] hee is to bee beaten. If he hire a beast, and mousell him, and treadeth out corne with him, hee is both beaten, and payeth to the owner thereof foure kabs for a bullocke, and three kabs for an asse. [A Kab was a measure that held as much as 24 egges.] If an Israelite tread out corne with the bullock of an heathen, (and mousell it) hee transgresseth against this Law, Thou shalt not mousell: but if an heathen tread with an Israelites bullocke, he transgresseth not: [for what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them that are under the Law, Rom. 3. 19.] If hee mousell him not, but put a pricke in his mouth, that hee cannot eat, or cause a lion to lie thereby [to fray him from eating] or layeth the (bullocks) calfe without, [to keepe her from eating,] or that the beast is athirst, and hee giveth it no drinke, or spread a skin upon the corne that he may not eat; all these and other the like are unlawfull, though hee is not beaten [for doing them] &c. Maimony tom. 4. treat. of Hired things, chap. 13. sect. 1, 2, 3. Vers. 5. If brethren dwell together] This Law is first to bee understood of naturall and next brethren (the Hebrewes restraine it to Israelites, and brethren by the fathers side onely;) and secondly, if there bee no brethren, the next kinsman (for all kinsmen are in the Scripture phrase brethren,) is to doe the duty here required, as the example of Booz and Ruth sheweth, Ruth 3. and 4. chap. And their dwelling together seemeth to denote their single state of life, whilest they abode in their fathers house; as there is an example of Er, Onan, and Selah, in Iudahs family, where before Moses time this Law was practised, Gen. 38. 7. &c. One of them dye] One is often used for the first, as in Gen. 1. 5. and 8. 5. So some understand this Law to be for the first-borne of the brethren onely: others take it generally for any one of them; and thus the Hebrewes take it in the largest sense. It is commanded by the Law, that a man should take the wife of his brother by the fathers side, whether of such as bee maried or betrothed, if hee dye without seed, Deut 25. 5. Brethren by the mothers side (only) are not counted for brethren, in the case of inheritance, or of taking the brothers wife, and putting off (the shooe) but are as if they mere none: for there is no brotherhood but by the fathers side. Strangers that are become Proselytes, and servants which have their freedome, have no brotherhood at all, but are as strangers one to another, &c. Maimony tom. 2. in Iibbum (or treat. of taking the Brothers wise) chap. 1. sect. 1. 7, 8. So in the Gospell this case is propounded to our Saviour in generall termes, Moses said, if any (man) die, Matt. 22. 24. or if any (mans) brother die, Mark. 12. 19. Luk. 20. 28. that it seemeth even then, this law was not thought to intend the first-borne onely. have no sonne] Hebr. no sonne to him, that is, no childe: for sonne, the Greeke translateth seed, which comprehendeth sonne or daughter: so in the Gospell it is translated, having no children, Matt. 22. 24. or, hee die childlesse, Luk. 20. 28. and in Matt. 22. 25. it is said, having no seed. Thus the Hebrewes expound it, That which is said in the Law, AND HAVE NO SON; whether it be sonne or daughter, or seed of son, or seed of daughter, &c. if he have seed by that wife, or by another, he freeth his wife from unloosing the shooe, or marrying his brother: yea, though he have a seed which is a bastard, &c. But if he have a sonne by a bond-woman, or by an alien, hee freeth not his wife: for the seed that commeth of a bond-woman are servants, Exod. 21. 4. and they which come of Infidels, are Infidels, and are as none; for of the heathen he saith, HE WILL TVRNE AWAY THY SON FROM AFTER ME, Deut. 7. 4. hee turneth him away from being counted of the Church. And though his son by the bond-woman be made free, or his son by the alien bee become a Proselyte; yet are they as other strangers, and freed (servants) and doe not discharge his wife, &c. Whoso dieth, and leaveth his wife with childe, if she have an untimely birth after his death, she is to marry her husbands brother: but if she bring it forth, and the childe commeth out alive into the aire of the world, although it die in the houre that it is borne, loe his mother is discharged from pulling off the shooe, or marying her husbands brother. Maim. in Iibbum, chap. 1. sect. 3, 4, 5. a stranger] that is, of another family in Israel, as the Greeke translateth it, a man not neere, that is, not neere of kin. The Hebrewes say, If she be married to another, & he lie with her before she be maried to her husbands brother, or have pulled off his shooe, he and she are to be beaten, and shee is to goe out by (bill of divorce.) Maim. in Iibbum c. 2 s. 18. her husbands brother] or next neerest kinsman, as in Ruths case, Ruth 3. Here they say, Who so dieth and leaveth many brethren, it is commanded that the eldest marry his brothers wife, or pull off his shooe. If the eldest will not, they turn to all the other brethrē: if they will not, they turne againe to the eldest and say, Vpon thee the commandement (lieth) either to pull off (the shooe) or to marry thy brothers wife: and they cannot compell the husbands brother to marry her, but they may compell him to pull off (the shooe.) If the eldest brother be gone into another countrey, his younger brother may not say, the commandement lieth upon my elder brother, wait for him till he come: but they say to this, that he now marry, or pull off (the shooe.) Maimony in Iibbum, chap. 2. sect. 6,—9. goe in unto her] into the chamber, as Iudg. 15. 1. that is, take her to wife. The Hebrews thinke this might not be done till they had waited 90 daies after her husbands death, which was to see whether shee were with childe or not: and such was the custome for all other women that were widowes; they maried not till after three moneths. Maim. in Iibbum, chap. 1. sect. 19. This seemeth necessary in this case, for if she were with childe, & brought it forth alive, it was not lawfull for her brother in law to have her, Levit. 18. 16. Vers. 6. stand up in the name of his brother] that is, be counted and called the seed of the dead man, not of the living: and for this cause Onan sinned in not performing this duty, because hee know that the seed should not be his, Gen. 38. 9. Thus Obed, whom Boaz begat of Ruth, is said to bee the sonne of Naomi, Ruth 4. 17. And as hee did this for his dead brother, so by the Hebrewes, Who so maried his brothers wife, hee was the heire of all his brothers goods. Maimony tom. 4. treat. of Inheritances, chap. 3. sect. 7. his name be not blotted but] or, not wiped out; for that was an heavie judgment in Israel, Deut. 9. 14. and 29. 20. Psal. 109. 13. Therefore to comfort the godly Eunuchs, the Lord promiseth to give them a name better than of sonnes and of daughters, Esay 56. 5. And this sheweth the reason o[illegible: 1 letter] this Law, that God would have brethren shew mercy one to another, both to the living, and to the dead, as Ruth 2. 20. that widowes should not be left comfortlesse, and that families should not be cut off from their inheritances in Canaan, (which were figures of a better and heavenly heritage, as is shewed on Gen. 12. 5.) but that the name of the dead might be raised up upon their inheritances, Ruth 4. 5, 10. And as Christ himselfe came according to the flesh, after this manner of kindnesse shewed by Booz his grandfather; so unto him, and his Church, may the truth of this shadow and legall ordinance be applied. For the Church of Israel was his wife, Hos. 2. who bare him no children by the Law, Rom. 7. and 10. and 11. But the Apostles (his brethren, Iohn 20. 17.) by the immortall seed of the Gospell, begat children unto him, both of the Iewes and Gentiles, 1 Cor. 4. 15. Gel. 4. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 23. not that they should be called by any mans name, 1 Cor. 1. 12, 13. but to carry the name of Christ, whose name shall be forever, and continued as long as the Sun; in whom all nations shall blesse themselves: and blessed be the name of his glory for ever, Psal. 72. 17, 19. Vers. 7. like not] or be not willing, have no delight or pleasure: so in vers. 8. Though God would have brethren performe the soresaid dutie, yet if their affections were contrary, hee forced them not hereunto, lest worse evils should grow in families, through want of love, which is the bond of perfectnesse. But what if the woman her selfe were not willing? For this God giveth no expresse Law; but by the Hebrewes opinion, if she were fit to marry him, and would not, she was judged as a woman rebellious against her husband, and was put away without a dowry, which all other widowes had. If her husbands brethren were many, and the eldest required her, and she were not willing thereto, but would have another brother, they hearkened not unto her, for the commandement is, that the eldest should have his brothers wife. Maimony in Iibbum, chap. 2. sect. 10, 11. to the gate] where the Iudges used to sit: so the Chaldee explaineth it, to the gate of the Iudgement hall (or Court,) before the Elders: See Ruth 4. 1, 2, &c. Vers. 8. and speake unto him] The brothers wife goeth after her husbands brother, in the place where he is, and commeth to the Iudges: and they call him, and give him counsell, such as is meet for him and her. If it be good to marry, they counsell him to marrie her: and if it be good to put off the shooe, as if she be very young, and he an old man, or she an old woman, and he a young man, they counsell him to put off (the shooe.) And it is needfull that the Iudges appoint a certaine place to sit in, and afterward she pulleth off his shoe there before them; &c. Maimony in Iibbum, ch. 4. sect. 1, 2. Vers. 9. pull off his shooe] It is said in Ruth 4. 7. that this was the manner in former time in Israel, concerning redeeming, and concerning changing, for to confirme all things; a man pulled off his shooe, and gave it to his neighbour, and this was a testimony in Israel. So in this case it was a signe, that the brother gave over his right in the woman, and resigned her to any other. Sometime it is a signe of ignominie, Esay 20. 2, 4. that also is implied here, as the words following manifest. The manner of performing this rite is said to be thus; They brought him a shooe of lether, which had an heele, &c. and hee put it on his right foot, and tied the latchet thereof upon his foot, and stood hee and she in the Synedrion (or Court.) And he setting his foot upon the ground, and she sitting downe stretched out her hand in the Court, and loosed the latchet of his shooe, and pulled the shooe off his foot, and cast it on the ground. After this she stood up, and spitted on the ground before his face, with spittle that might be seen of the Iudges; and it was necessary that the Iudges should see the spittle that came out of her mouth. And afterwards she said, THVS SHALL IT BE DONE TO THE MAN WHICH WILL NOT BVILD VP HIS BROTHERS HOVSE; AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED IN ISRAEL, THE HOVSE OF HIM THAT HATH HIS SHOOE PVLLED OFF; all in the holy tongue. And all that sate there, answered after her, HE THAT HATH HIS SHOOE PVLLED OFF, three times. Maimony in Iibbum, chap. 4. sect. 6, 7, 8. Spiritually this signified, that such as would not beget children unto Christ, it should be declared of them, that their feet are not shod with the preparation (or stability) of the Gospell of peace, mentioned in Ephes. 6. 15. spit in his face] or in his sight, as this phrase is interpreted, Deut. 4. 37. or before him, as Deut. 11. 25. The Hebrews expound it of spitting on the ground before him, as is before noted. And this spitting was a signe of shame and ignominie, as Num. 12. 14. Esay 50. 6. build up his brothers house] that is, beget seed for his brother: as Rachel and Leah are said to build the house of Israel, by bearing children, Ruth 4. 11. See the Annotations on Gen. 16. 2. the house of him] So there was a note of infamy not upon himselfe onely, but his house, his posterity after him: whereby God shewed how much hee misliked this his unkindnesse. And concerning that neerest kinsman, which refused to marry Ruth, left he should marre his owne inheritance, Ruth 4. 6. wee may observe how neither he nor his hath any name or memoriall in the booke of God, though there seemed to be just occasion to have named him, Ruth 4. 1. &c. whereas Boaz who did the dutie, hath not onely his genealogie rehearsed, Ruth 4. 18,—22. but is in the roll of the kinred of our Lord Iesus Christ, who came of him according to the flesh, Matth. 1. 1,—5. After all these rites were performed, the Hebrewes doe record, that the Iudges gave unto the woman a Bill subscribed with their names, wherein they testified to all men, that such a man and such a woman had on such a day and yeere appeared before them, and done all the things fore-mentioned, according to the Law of Moses and Israel: which bill was a testimoniall of her full discharge from this man, after which she was free to be married to any other. Maimony in libbum, ch. 4. sect. 29, 30. Vers. 11. When men strive] or fight, as it were flying one upon another. and his brother] that is, his neighbour; brother is taken here in a large sense, as in Exod. 2. 11. and in many other places. to deliver her husband] This though it was lawfull for her to doe, and a fruit of her love; yet God forbiddeth it to be done by any unlawfull or immodest manner: for wee may not doe evill that good may come, Rom. 3. 8. putteth forth her hand] This noteth a purposed act: for if she had done this unawares, the penalty following was not to be inflicted upon her. So the Hebrews conclude in the generall for all men, He that bringeth shame (on his neighbour) is not guilty (of punishment) for the shame, unlesse he doe it purposely, as it is written, AND SHE PVTTETH FORTH HER HAND: but hee that doth shame to his neighbour without intent, is free. Maimony tom. 4. in Chobel (or treat. of him that doth hurt and dammage) chap. 1. sect. 10. by his secrets] or privities; which in the Hebrew have their name of Shame, the shamefull parts. From hence the Iewes have a generall law, that men are to make satisfaction for all manner shame that they bring upon their neighbour, as is noted on Exod. 21. 19. Their saying is, He that hurteth his neighbour, is bound to make him satisfaction for five things, viz. the dammage, and the paine, and his healing, and his resting, and the shame; and these five things are recompensed out of the best of his goods, &c. Hee is bound to pay for the shame by it selfe, Deut. 25. 11, 12. under which law is generally comprehended hee that bringeth shame (upon his neighbour.) Maimony in Chobel, ch. 1. sect. 1. 8. Vers. 12. cut off her hand] the instrument wherewith she sinned: by it teaching to cut off and abstaine from such actions. And this severe punishment God appointeth for her immodest carriage. Vers. 13. a stone and a stone] that is, as the Greek and Chaldee translate, a weight and a weight; meaning divers weights, wherewith to deceive in buying and selling, called the bag of deceitfull weights, Mich. 6. 11. In Israel they used to have their weights of stone, or the like: see the Annotations on Lev. 19. 36. So an heart and an heart, meaneth a double deceitfull heart, 1 Chron. 12. 33. This Law forbiddeth not onely all unrighteousnesse in buying, selling, and exchanging; but all unjustice in judgement, Matth. 7. 1, 2. as God blaming the Iudges, saith, You weigh the violent wrong of your hands in the earth, Psal. 58. 3. The like evill is to be avoided in handling the word of God, that it be not deceitfully, 2 Cor. 4. 2. So for measuring the ordinances of God in his Church, by the Reed and Line which he hath given therefore, Ezek. 40. 3, 5. & 43. 10. Re. 11. 1. called a golden Reed, Re. 21. 15. Vers. 14. in thine house] Though a man doe not weight or measure with such, yet it is unlawfull to have a light weight, or scant measure in his house or shop, (as the Hebrewes teach from this place,) for another may come, who knoweth not that it lacketh weight, and may weight with it. Maimony treat. of Theft, chap. 7. sect. 3. Ephah] or Bushell: in Greeke and Chaldee, a measure and a measure, that is, a double measure. The Ephah is named in stead of all other: what it was, see on Lev. 19. 36. and Exod. 16. 36. So in Prov. 20. 10. A stone and a stone, an Ephah and an Ephah, are an abomination to Iehovah, even both of them. See also Prov. 11. 1. and 20. 23. Vers. 15. A perfect stone] in Greeke, A true weight: so after, a true measure. Hence Solomon saith, A perfect stone is the Lords. delight, Prov. 11. 1. and a just] Hebr. and (a stone of) justice: so an Ephah of justice, that is, most just and exact: contrary to them that made the Ephah small, and the shekel great, Amos 8. 5. So in Ezek. 45. 10. it is said, Balances of justice, and an Ephah of justice, and a Bath of justice, shall ye have. God here commandeth justice and equity in all things, corporall and spirituall, as our Saviour teacheth us saying, Iudge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemne not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed downe, and shaken together, and running over, &c. Luke 6. 37, 38. And Iob applying this to his state of life, saith, Let him weigh me in balances of justice, that God may know mine integrity, Iob 31. 6. And every man is willed to ponder (or weigh) the path of his feet, Prov. 4. 26. that is, (as the Apostle expoundeth it) to make strait paths for his feet, Heb. 12. 13. may be lengthned] or, prolonged; or, that they may lengthen thy daies; of which phrase see Exod. 20. 12. As a just weight and balance are the Lords, Prov. 16. 11. and his delight, Prov. 11. 1. so hee rewardeth with blessing and long life, the keeping of this law, than which there is none more necessarie in humane society. Vers. 16. an abomination] that is, most abominable; yea, not onely the person that doth these, but even the weights and measures themselves are said to be an abomination, Prov. 11. 1. and 20. 23. and the rather for that this injury is done under a shew of justice, and done especially to the poorer sort, which buy by retale, whose wrong God especially regardeth. unrighteousnesse] or injurious evill: which generall word is here added, to imply all other wrongs and deceits, which abound among men, whereby they oppresse and defraud one another: but the Lord is the avenger of all such, 1 Thess. 4. 6. and he hath sworne by the excellency of Iakob, Surely I will never forget any of their workes, Amos 8. 5, 7. Vers. 17. Remember] Hebr. To remember, of which phrase see the notes on Exod. 13. 3. Amalek] that is, the Amalekites, which were the children of Esau, Iakobs brother: of whose wickednesse see Exod. 17. 8. &c. Vers. 18. he met thee] by way of enmitie, not of amity; therefore the Greeke translateth, hee resisted thee; when it had beene his dutie to have met them with bread and water, for their refreshing, Deut. 23. 4. In 1 Sam. 15. 2. it is said, hee layd (wait) for Israel in the way. smote the hindmost] Hebr. out off the taile; a stratageme of warre, lawfull against Gods enemies, as Ios. 10. 19: but wicked against his people. The Greeke translateth, Cut off thy hindmost troope: in Chaldee, he killed. feeblè] in Greeke, wearied, in Chaldee, lingring: which fact was cruelty in Amalek; for the faint and feeble ought to be comforted and refreshed, Matth. 11. 28. 1 Thess. 5. 14. and such were gathered in therereward, as Israel marched, Numb. 10. 25. Though this might be a just correction from God, of such as fainted in their travels, wherein they should have beene incouraged. See the notes on Exod. 17. 8. feared not God] the Chaldee saith, hee feared not the glory of the Lord: for his glory conducted them in a pillar of cloud and fire, Exod. 13. 21. and God by signes and wonders, great plagues and terriblenesse, had brought Israel out of Egypt, which made all peoples afraid, Exod. 15. 14. &c. yet Amalek feared not. As by the feare of the Lord, men depart from evill Prov. 16. 6. so the want of his feare is the cause why men rush into all evill, Psalme 36. 1, 2, &c. Vers. 19. given rest unto thee from all] under which is implied, a subduing of all the enemies; for so these phrases doe explaine one another, 2 Sam. 7, 11. with 1 Chron. 17. 10. And here God deferreth vengeance till after many yeeres: so shewing for bearance towards the wicked, which should leade them to repentance, Rom. 2. 4. and compassion towards his people, whom he would not exercise with all warres at once, lest they should be discomfited. See Exod. 13. 17. blot out] or, [illegible: 1 letter]ipe out the remembrance, that there should no name or memoriall of them remaine: a signe of great, wrath, as Deut. 9. 14. and 29. 20. This judgement God executed by Saul the first King of Israel, whom he sent to destroy utterly these Amalekites, both man and woman, infant and suckling; [illegible: 1 span]xe and sheepe, camell and asse, 1 Sam. 15. 2, [illegible: 1 word] But he failed in the performance of it: therefore God stirred up the Simconites (in King Ezeki[illegible: 1 span] daies) and they smote the rest of the Amalekites, that were escaped, 1 Chron. 4. 42. 43. yet Haman of Agag the Amalekite remained, who plotted the death of all the Iewes: but he and his ten sons were killed; and Amaleks memory is perished, Hest. 3. &c. And under this, the like judgement on Antichrist was figured: see the Annotations on Exod. 17. shal[illegible: 1 letter] not forget] that is, Take heed thou forget it not: by forgetting he implieth also neglect of performing this judgement. Therefore Saul who performed it not thorowly, but spared the King, and the best of the cattell, (though for sacrifice unto the Lord) was rejected of God, as having sinned greatly, 1 Sam. 15. 9. 21. 23. and for it hee was slaine, 1 Chron. 10. 13. and an Amalekite, had an hand in his death, 2 Sam. 1, 8, 9, 10.