1 Corinthians 9:9

Doth God take care for oxen? Luther and Estius are here fully of one mind against those who suppose the Apostle to mean that God does notcare for oxen. "God cares for all," says the former, and the latter gives proofs of this care from Holy Writ, for example, Psalms 36:6; Psalms 147:9. But the precepts of the law were illustrations of general principles which extended far beyond the special precepts contained in it. Such a precept was that in Exodus 23:19, -Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk," cf. Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21, which had in view the general principle of the cultivation of a spirit of humanity. As an instance of the superior humanity of the Jewish law, Dean Stanley mentions the fact that "the Egyptians had an inscription, still extant, to this effect," and that in Greece there was a proverb, "the ox on the heap of corn," to describe a man in the midst of plenty which he could not enjoy. In this and many other instances we have to bear in mind that -the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." St Paul applies this passage from the Old Testament in an exactly similar manner in 1 Timothy 5:18. It occurs in Deuteronomy 25:4.