Deuteronomy 25:2

_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._ Worthy to be beaten. In judicial sentences which awarded punishment short of capital, scourging was the most common form in which they were executed, and it was inflicted immediately on condemnation. The amount of stripes was of course proportioned to the nature or aggravations of the offence: an officer of justice laid hold of his garment and tore it until his breast and back were bared; and from the criminal being "caused to lie down," the Hebrew mode of inflicting them seems to have been precisely the same as the Egyptian bastinado, which was applied to the bared back of the culprit, who was stretched flat on the ground, his hands and feet being held by attendants; or more commonly, while the latter onl...

1-3 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....

Verse Deuteronomy 25:2. _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....

Render it: (1) If there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them, and justify the righteous and condemn the wicked (compare the marginal reference. and Exodus 23:7; Proverbs 17:15); (2) then it shall be, etc. Deuteronomy 25:2 Scourging is named as a penalty in Leviticus 19:20. The beating here spoken of would be on the back with a rod or stick (compare Proverbs 10

EXPOSITION LAWS RELATING TO CORPORAL PUNISHMENT, LEVIRATE MARRIAGES, AND WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. DEUTERONOMY 25:1 The first and second verses should be read as one sentence, of which the protasis is in Deuteronomy 25:1 and the apodosis in Deuteronomy 25:2, thus: IF THERE BE A STRIFE BETWEEN MEN, AND THEY COME TO JUDGMENT, AND THEY (_i_._e_._ _the judges) give judgment on them, and justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked, then

AND IT SHALL BE, IF THE WICKED MAN BE WORTHY TO BE BEATEN,.... There were four kinds of death criminals were put to by the Jews, stoning, strangling, burning, and slaying with the sword; and such crimes not as severe as these were punished with beating or scourging; and who they were that were worthy to be beaten is at large set forth in the Misnic treatise called Maccoth x, or "stripes", which are too many to be transcribed. Maimonides says y, that all negative precepts in the law, for the breach of which men are guilty of cutting off, but not of death by the sanhedrim, are to be beaten. They are in all twenty one, and so all deserving of death by the hand of heaven; and they are eighteen, and all negative precepts of the law broken, for which there is neither cutting off nor death by a court of judicature, for these men are to be beaten, and they are one hundred and sixty eight; and al...

21. VARIOUS LAWS AND RESPONSIBILITIES CHAPTER 25 _ 1. Corporal punishment (Deuteronomy 25:1)_ 2. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox (Deuteronomy 25:4) 3. The brother-in-law's marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5) 4. Concerning a sinful freedom (Deuteronomy 25:11) 5. Concerning divers weights and measures (Deuteronomy 25:13) 6. Concerning the conquest of Amalek (Deuteronomy 25:17

DEUTERONOMY 25:1. Another of Dt.'s humanitarian laws. Punishment by the bastinado among the ancient Hebrews and Egyptians was common (see Wilkinson- Birch, _Ancient Egyptians_, i. pp. 305, 308). The present writer saw it in Egypt in 1888; see Exodus 21:20 (showing that a slave was sometimes beaten to death), Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 19:29. Deuteronomy 25:3. The forty stripes became thirty- nine (2 Corinthians 11:24) i

Deuteronomy 24:5 to Deuteronomy 25:4. Thirteen Laws of Equity and Humanity Besides the humane temper common to most of them, and a few cue-words, there are no apparent reasons for their being grouped or for the order in which they occur. They have various openings, mostly conditional, otherwise negative. Three are not in the direct form of address, and two only close with this; the rest are in the Sg. form, except one mixed of Sg. and Pl. Some are peculiar to D, others have parallels in E and H. In particular note the separation of the three laws on pledges, and their use of two different terms for -pledge." All this suggests a compilation from different sources....

_VER._ 2, 3. _THE JUDGE SHALL CAUSE HIM TO LIE DOWN,_ &C.— To prevent severity in judgment upon persons found guilty of misdemeanors, Moses here not only enjoins the number of stripes to be inflicted, but takes care that it shall be done before the face of the judge himself. The criminal lay down in open court, either upon the ground, or before a low pillar, to which his hands were tied, and, being stripped to his waist, the executioner stood behind him, and scourged him on the back with thongs made of ox's hide: the stripes were not to exceed forty; on which account they were generally confined to thirty-nine. Thus St. Paul says of himself, _Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes save one._ 2 Corinthians 11:24. The sacred writer adds, _lest if he should exceed—thy brother should seem vile unto thee; i.e._ lest the judges, by exceeding the boun