Deuteronomy 25 Commentary

Moses instructs the Israelites on how to administer legal justice in the land. This law limits the number of lashes to be given to a criminal to forty.

Moses’s concern for compassion moves to the treatment of domestic animals. He now commands Israel not to muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

Beginning a section that focuses on the principle of the tenth commandment which restricts envy, Moses described the principles relating to levirate marriage. They involve a situation where one of two brothers dwelling together dies without having a son. Though the surviving brother was required to marry his brother’s wife so his family line could continue, this law dictated what to do if the surviving brother refuses to do what was required of him.

This law prescribed to cut off the hand of a wife who sought to deliver her husband in a fight by seizing the genitals of his opponent.

Moses commands the Israelites to use accurate weights and measures when they engage in commerce with other people.

Moses urged the Israelites to remember to wipe out the Amalekites when they are settled in the Promised Land. This was in response to the brutality the Amalekites showed when they attacked the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt.