Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Deuteronomy 25: No Hitting Below The Belt!

Deuteronomy 25 continues an exposition on fairness.  You might call this section a tutorial on keeping things clean, or no hitting below the belt!

For instance, the maximum sentence for corporal punishment is set: 40 lashes, no more (vs. 3).  This limit is meant to ensure that a person, even it guilty, won't be beaten all the way to death for an infraction that does not deserve capital punishment.

Instructions are also included on muzzling an ox that is treading out the grain (don't do it) and refusing to marry your dead brother's widow (don't do that either).  But if a man does refuse to continue his late brother's line by marrying his wife, the procedure for dealing with such a rascal is detailed in verses 5-10.

Likewise, in the case of a woman who literally "hits below the belt" when her husband is tussling in a fight with another man, the punishment is swift and merciless - amputation of her hand!

Fairness is also expected in the exercise of commerce.  Only one set of weights or measures is to be used - not multiple in an attempt to cheat people (vs. 13-16).  This was in the days before a government auditor would make sure that things were fair.

Finally, the chapter ends with a word against Amalek, someone who notoriously hit the Israelites below the belt while they were on vulnerable and exposed (Exodus 17:8).  God's instruction pertaining to Amalek is that the Israelites should wipe out the very remembrance of his name from the earth as a consequence for how he treated them during their Exodus from Egypt (vs. 19).

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