Deuteronomy 25:4

_THOU SHALT NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHEN HE TREADETH OUT THE CORN._ Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. In Judea, as in modern Syria and Egypt, the larger grains, wheat, barley, and rice, were not threshed, but beaten out by the feet of oxen, which, yoked together, trode round day after day the wide open spaces which form the threshing-floors. These flat open spaces or floors are formed of clay hardened with cow's dung, as the barn-floors are with a small mixture lime in this country. A pole or pillar is raised in the center, and by a halter attached to it on the one end, and to the neck of the oxen on the other, the patient animals are made to perambulate in circular courses at their daily work. The ancient paintings in Egypt represent oxen as commonly used in treading out the grain from the ear in harvest time-rarely donkeys. Swine, not being sufficiently heavy for t...

4._Thou shalt not muzzle the ox_. This passage, indeed, properly belongs to the Supplements of the Commandment, but, since it is a confirmation of the foregoing decree, it seemed fit to connect them; especially because its faithful expositor, Paul, declares, that God had no other design in delivering it than that the laborer should not be defrauded of his just hire, (1 Corinthians 9:10;) for, when he is speaking of the maintenance to be afforded to the ministers of the Gospel, he adduces it. in proof of his case. And, lest any should object that there is a difference between oxen and men, he adds, that God does not care for oxen, but that it was said for the sake of those that labor. Meanwhile, we must bear in mind, that men are so instructed in equity, that they are bound to exercise it even towards the brute animals; for well does Solomon magnify the injustice, whereby our neighbor

4 This is a charge to husbandmen. It teaches us to make much of the animals that serve us. But we must learn, not only to be just, but kind to all who are employed for the good of our better part, our souls, 1 Corinthians 9:9....

Verse Deuteronomy 25:4. _THOU SHALT NOT MUZZLE THE OX, C._] In Judea, as well as in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, they make use of beeves to tread out the corn and Dr. Shaw tells us that the people of Barbary continue to tread out their corn after the custom of the East. Instead of beeves they frequently made use of mules and horses, by tying by the neck three or four in like manner together, and whipping them afterwards round about the _nedders_, as they call the _treading_ floors, (the Libycae areae _Hor_), where the sheaves lie open and expanded, in the same manner as they are placed and prepared with us for threshing. This indeed is a much quicker way than ours, though less cleanly, for as it is performed in the open air, (Hosea 13:3), upon any round level plot of ground, daubed ove...

Compare the marginal references. In other kinds of labor the oxen were usually muzzled. When driven to and fro over the threshing-floor in order to stamp out the grain from the chaff, they were to be allowed to partake of the fruits of their labors....

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

THOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHEN HE TREADETH OUT [THE CORN]. As oxen are used in ploughing, so likewise in treading or beating out the corn; of the manner of which, 1 Corinthians 9:9; now while it was thus employed, it might not be restrained by any means from eating the corn as it had an opportunity, either by a muzzle put over its mouth, or other ways. The Gentiles had several ways of restraining their cattle from eating, while they thus made use of them, to which this law is opposed. Maimonides f has collected several or them together, as prohibited by it; as putting a thorn into its mouth, causing a lion to lie down by it, or causing its calf to lie down without, or spreading a skin on the top of the corn, that so it may not eat. Aelianus g relates a very particular way of hindering oxen from eating at such times, used some countries, which was this; that oxen might not eat of t

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

See the Structure, "Threshing" for this verse in the book comments for Deuteronomy. NOT MUZZLE. Animals generally muzzled in the East. Compare 1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18....