1 Corinthians 9:8-9

Vv. 8, 9. “Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? 9. For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?”

God had commanded the Jews, Deuteronomy 25:4, that when harvest came, the ox, while treading the corn which it had contributed to produce by the painful labour of ploughing, should not be muzzled, and thereby prevented from enjoying, conjointly with man, the fruit of its toil. Among the heathen no scruple was felt about acting differently, and hence God expressly forbids this practice to His people. God's object in acting thus was evidently to cultivate in the hearts of His people feelings of justice and equity. This moral object appears not only from the prohibition in itself, but also from all the other injunctions which accompany it in chaps. 24 and 25 of Deuteronomy: the command to restore to the poor man his garment, taken as a pledge, immediately after sunset (Deu 24:10-13); to pay to the poor labourer his wages on the same evening (Deu 24:14-15); not to put the child to death with the guilty father (Deu 24:16-18); always to leave, when gathering the harvest, a gleaning for widows and strangers (Deu 24:19-22); not to subject the criminal to more than forty stripes (Deu 25:1-3), etc. Does not this whole context show clearly enough what was the object of the prohibition quoted here? It was not from solicitude for oxen that God made this prohibition; there were other ways of providing for the nourishment of these animals. By calling on the Israelites to exercise gentleness and gratitude, even toward a poor animal, it is clear that God desired to inculcate on them, with stronger reason, the same way of acting toward the human workmen whose help they engaged in their labour. It was the duties of moral beings to one another, that God wished to impress by this precept.

The expression: according to [as a] man, is opposed to the law, which possesses a Divine authority. Here the apostle employs the term λέγω, to declare, ordain, whereas in speaking of his own saying, he had simply used the word λαλῶ, to express.

Vv. 9. We ought probably to prefer the reading of the Vaticanus, κημώσεις, to that of the T. R., φιμώσεις. The meaning is the same, but the second reading is no doubt derived from the LXX. The verb κημοῦν signifies more specially to close the mouth by a muzzle, while φιμοῦν signifies to close the mouth in general, by any means whatever.

The mode of treading out corn in the East is this: over the ears spread out on the threshing-floor there are made to pass horses or oxen, or sometimes a small wain drawn by these animals, and on which the driver stands.

When Paul asks if God takes care for oxen, it is clear that he is not speaking of God as Creator, but of God as giving the law (1 Corinthians 9:8), in ferendâ lege, as Calvin says; for in the domain of creation and Providence “He does not neglect even the smallest sparrow” (Calvin). As we have seen, it was on the heart of the Israelite that He sought to impress this prohibition.