Deuteronomy 25:3

_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._ Lest, if he should exceed ... then thy brother should seem vile unto thee. It may, perhaps, be thought that this mode of punishment was itself a brand of infamy, whatever precautions were taken to limit its severity. But it must be borne in mind that the ancients regarded it with associations very different from ours. Among the Romans the infliction of the scourge was not deemed infamous; for it was sometimes applied even to freemen and high-born citizens. But the reason assigned by the legislator in this statute for restricting the number of stripes is very remarkable. It is not simply a motive of compassion for a sufferer-it is a respect for human nature, the rights of which are preserved even in a criminal. To inflict upo...

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 25:3. _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 offence 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...

The Jews to keep within the letter of the law fixed 39 stripes as the maximum (compare the marginal reference.). Forty signifies the full measure of judgment (compare Genesis 7:12; Numbers 14:33); but the son of Israel was not to be lashed like a slave at the mercy of another. The judge was always to be present to see that the Law in this particular was not overpassed....

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

FORTY STRIPES HE MAY GIVE HIM, AND NOT EXCEED,.... And that this number might not be exceeded, it is ordered by the Jewish canons that only thirty nine should be given; for it is asked b, "with how many stripes do they beat him? with forty, save one, as it is said, in number "forty" that is, in the number which is next to forty;'' this they make out by joining the last word of Deuteronomy 25:2 with the first of this; and that this was an ancient sense of the law, and custom upon it, appears by the execution of it on the Apostle Paul; who was not indulged, but suffered the extremity of it as it was then understood, 2 Corinthians 11:24; moreover, that they might not exceed this number, they used to make a scourge of three lashes, so that every strike

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

FORTY STRIPES. To ensure obedience to this law, tradition made the stripes 39, and gave three strokes with. thong of thirteen cords. Compare 2 Corinthians 11:24. VILE. mean, or lightly esteemed....

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....