Old Testament · Law

Deuteronomy 25

Fair Measures

Honest weights, limited punishment, and a brother's duty. Small laws that reveal enormous values.

King James Version BSB KJV

1If 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.

2And 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.

3Forty 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.

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

5If 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 an husband’s brother unto her.

6And 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.

7And 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.

8Then 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;

9Then 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.

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

11When 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:

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

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

14Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.

15But 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.

16For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

17Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt;

18How 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.

19Therefore 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.

Understand This

Deuteronomy 25, explained

What Deuteronomy 25 is saying

Laws limit judicial flogging to forty stripes, require the ox to eat while threshing, establish levirate marriage (a brother's duty to marry his deceased brother's childless widow), condemn dishonest weights and measures, and conclude with the command to blot out the memory of Amalek for their unprovoked attack on Israel's weak and weary stragglers.

The background behind it

Paul cites the ox-threshing law (v. 4) in 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18 to argue for ministerial support, reading it as a principle rather than merely an animal welfare provision. The levirate marriage (Latin levir, 'brother-in-law') custom provides the legal backdrop for the books of Ruth and the Sadducees' question to Jesus about resurrection.

Themes running underneath

These laws share a concern for dignity—even the guilty criminal retains dignity (limited stripes), the working animal deserves sustenance, the deceased man's name is preserved through levirate marriage. The Amalek command stands as the severest judgment in the Torah, targeting a nation that attacked the most defenseless.

Why it still matters

Dignity extends even to those being punished, and workers—whether human or animal—deserve just treatment. Paul's creative reading of the ox law demonstrates that biblical principles often apply far beyond their original context.

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Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.