Deuteronomy 25:1-4·~1 min

Fairness and Mercy

A legal dispute is brought before judges, who must clear the innocent and condemn the guilty. Even when flogging is deserved, the punishment is capped so the guilty man is not degraded before the community.

I¹f there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned. ²If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants. ³He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.

An ox treading grain must not be muzzled while it works. The law protects a laboring creature from being denied the benefit of its own work.

⁴Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

Section summaryThis section sets limits around judgment and labor so justice does not become humiliation and strength is not exploited. Even where guilt is established, the law keeps the offender and the working animal from being treated as mere tools.

Role in the chapterIt opens the chapter with a pattern for the laws that follow: power must be exercised with measure. The section frames covenant life as ordered by restraint as much as by penalty.