Deuteronomy 25:1-3

LESSON NINETEEN Deuteronomy 25:1-16

(16) JUDGING AND PUNISHING MEN IN CONTROVERSY (Deuteronomy 25:1-3)

If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked; 2 and it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number. 3 Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 25:1-3

431.

Was forty stripes given for every type of crime?

432.

What was used for the administration of such punishment? Cf. Exodus 21:20.

433.

By New Testament times the instrument for beating had changed. Cf. Matthew 10:17; Matthew 23:34.

434.

In what sense was such punishment corrective?

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 25:1-3

If there is a controversy between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide between them, justifying the innocent and condemning the guilty,
2 Then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a certain number of stripes, according to his offense.
3 Forty stripes may be given him, but not more; lest, if he should be beaten with many stripes your brother should [be treated like a beast and] seem low and worthless to you.

COMMENT 25:1-3

See also Deuteronomy 17:8-13, notes, Deuteronomy 19:15-21. We have discussed the necessity of fair judgment on the part of the judges several times: Deuteronomy 1:16-17; Deuteronomy 16:18-20; Cf. Deuteronomy 24:17-18.

The emphatic way in which the law stated that only forty stripes were to be given the offender, give rise to the custom of giving thirty-nine. A miscount might otherwise cause the offender to deem his persecutor as vile, (Heb. Kalah) to be counted despicable, (Gesenius). Yet by New Testament times the counting process had usually a simpler solutionless actual strokes by the one giving the lashes. See 2 Corinthians 11:24, where Macknight remarks, By the law, Deut. xxv. 3, punishment with stripes was restricted to forty at one beating. The whip with which these stripes were given [in Paul's day] consisting of three separate cords, and each stroke being counted as three stripes, beyond which they never went. Hence the expression, -forty stripes save one.-'One more last would have meant forty-two stripes.

But the original law apparently referred to beating by a rod (Exodus 21:20). Scourging replaced it in later Jewish history (Matthew 10:17; Matthew 23:34) but the number of stripes was retained.