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Deuteronômio 25

ARC · Chapter 25/34

1Quando houver contenda entre alguns, e vierem ao juizo, para que os julguem, ao justo justificarão, e ao injusto condemnarão.

2E será que, se o injusto merecer açoites, o juiz o fará deitar, e o fará açoitar diante de si, quanto bastar pela sua injustiça, por certa conta

3Quarenta açoites lhe fará dar, não mais; para que, porventura, se lhe fizer dar mais açoites do que estes, teu irmão não fique envilecido aos teus olhos

4Não atarás a bocca ao boi, quando trilhar.

5Quando alguns irmãos morarem juntos, e algum d'elles morrer, e não tiver filho, então a mulher do defunto não se casará com homem estranho de fóra; seu cunhado entrará a ella, e a tomará por mulher, e fará a obrigação de cunhado para com ella.

6E será que o primogenito que ella parir estará em nome de seu irmão defunto; para que o seu nome se não apague em Israel.

7Porém, se o tal homem não quizer tomar sua cunhada, subirá então sua cunhada á porta dos anciãos, e dirá: Meu cunhado recusa suscitar a seu irmão nome em Israel; não quer fazer para comigo o dever de cunhado.

8Então os anciãos da sua cidade o chamarão, e com elle fallarão: e, se elle ficar n'isto, e disser; Não quero tomal-a;

9Então sua cunhada se chegará a elle aos olhos dos anciãos; e lhe descalçará o sapato do pé, e lhe cuspirá no rosto, e protestará, e dirá: Assim se fará ao homem que não edificar a casa de seu irmão:

10E o seu nome se chamará em Israel: A casa do descalçado.

11Quando pelejarem dois homens, um contra o outro, e a mulher d'um chegar para livrar a seu marido da mão do que o fere, e ella estender a sua mão, e lhe pegar pelas suas vergonhas,

12Então cortar-lhe-has a mão: não a poupará o teu olho.

13Na tua bolsa não terás diversos pesos, um grande e um pequeno.

14Na tua casa não terás duas sortes d'epha, uma grande e uma pequena.

15Peso inteiro e justo terás; epha inteira e justa terás; para que se prolonguem os teus dias na terra que te dará o Senhor teu Deus.

16Porque abominação é ao Senhor teu Deus todo aquelle que faz isto, todo aquelle que fizer injustiça.

17Lembra-te do que te fez Amalek no caminho, quando saieis do Egypto;

18Como te saiu ao encontro no caminho, e te derribou na rectaguarda todos os fracos que iam após ti, estando tu cançado e afadigado; e não temeu a Deus.

19Será pois que, quando o Senhor teu Deus te tiver dado repouso de todos os teus inimigos em redor, na terra que o Senhor teu Deus te dará por herança, para possuil-a, então apagarás a memoria de Amalek de debaixo do céu: não te esqueças.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Moses sets the limit of 40 lashes for judicial punishments, the law of levirate marriage (a brother-in-law marrying a childless widow to preserve the family line), the prohibition of dishonest weights and measures in trade, and the final command to never forget — and eventually blot out — the memory of Amalek for its cowardly attack on Israel in the wilderness.

Explanation

The limit of 40 lashes, with the explicit justification that excessive punishment would make 'your brother be degraded in your eyes,' shows a remarkable concern for preserving human dignity even in someone being legitimately punished for a crime, avoiding dehumanizing punishment. The law of levirate marriage, though it may seem strange by modern standards, served to protect childless widows from being left without support or social protection, while also preserving the continuity of the family name and property — providing the direct backdrop for the story of Ruth and Boaz. The command to remember, and eventually eliminate, Amalek — a people who specifically attacked the weakest and most exhausted of Israel during the wilderness journey (the women, children, and elderly at the rear) — is presented not as arbitrary ethnic hatred, but as specific justice against a deliberate, cowardly cruelty.

Fun facts

  • The Jewish practice of giving '39 lashes' (not 40) as punishment — still mentioned in the New Testament when Paul describes receiving this punishment five times (2 Corinthians 11:24) — developed as a safety margin to never accidentally exceed the biblical limit of 40.
  • The conflict with Amalek mentioned here would have lasting historical consequences, culminating centuries later in the command King Saul received to completely destroy the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15) — and his partial disobedience to that command would have grave consequences for his own reign.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Deuteronômio 25:1The limit of forty lashes, later kept as “thirty-nine” in Jewish tradition so as never to exceed the number by mistake, was already, by the standards of the time, a law limiting physical punishment, not leaving room for it to go unchecked.
  2. Deuteronômio 25:2If the punishment decided on is flogging, the judge himself oversees it, with the number of blows proportional to the seriousness of the offense.
  3. Deuteronômio 25:3It caps the punishment at forty lashes at most, so as not to degrade a fellow Israelite excessively.
  4. Deuteronômio 25:4The command not to “muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn” means letting the animal eat a little while it works. Paul later quotes this verse to argue that whoever works has a right to his own sustenance.
  5. Deuteronômio 25:5Levirate marriage required the brother of a man who died without children to marry the widow, so that the firstborn son would carry on the dead brother’s name and the line would not be blotted out. If the brother-in-law refused, the widow could publicly shame him by removing his sandal and spitting near him before the elders, a formal way of marking whoever failed the family’s obligation.
  6. Deuteronômio 25:6It explains the purpose of levirate marriage: the firstborn son of that union would inherit the dead brother’s name, so that his line would not be put out of Israel.
  7. Deuteronômio 25:7It provides for the brother-in-law’s refusal to fulfill this duty, giving the widow the right to bring the case publicly before the elders.
  8. Deuteronômio 25:8The elders would summon the brother-in-law to confront him with his refusal before the community.
  9. Deuteronômio 25:9If he maintained his refusal, the widow would carry out a public ritual of shame: removing his sandal and spitting in his face.
  10. Deuteronômio 25:10That man would become publicly known by the disparaging nickname “The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.”
  11. Deuteronômio 25:11This is one of the most isolated laws in the Bible: if a woman, trying to defend her husband in a fight, grabbed the private parts of his opponent, the penalty was cutting off her hand. There’s no direct parallel to this law anywhere else in the Pentateuch, and scholars debate the exact reason for its severity.
  12. Deuteronômio 25:12It provides for a specific case of a fight in which a woman, trying to defend her husband, grabs the private parts of his opponent — the prescribed penalty was cutting off her hand.
  13. Deuteronômio 25:13Keeping two different weights in the bag — one for buying, a heavier one for selling — was a common form of fraud in ancient trade. The law demands a “perfect and just weight” on both sides of the scale.
  14. Deuteronômio 25:14It forbids keeping two different volume measures at home, one larger and one smaller, in order to defraud transactions.
  15. Deuteronômio 25:15It requires a single, honest set of weights and measures, promising long life in the land as a reward for commercial honesty.
  16. Deuteronômio 25:16It reinforces that cheating with weights and measures is an abomination to God, on the same level as other serious injustices.
  17. Deuteronômio 25:17It shifts subject to recall a specific episode: the cowardly attack by the people of Amalek during the departure from Egypt.
  18. Deuteronômio 25:18It details the cowardice of the attack: Amalek struck from behind at the weakest and most exhausted, with no fear of God at all.
  19. Deuteronômio 25:19Because of that attack, the final order is to blot out the memory of Amalek completely, once Israel was at rest in the promised land.

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