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Deuteronomy 25

Deuteronomy 25 orders Israel’s common life under God’s justice, setting limits on punishment and demanding faithfulness in family and trade.

Moses gives Israel laws for disputes, household duties, and trade as the people prepare to live in the land God gives them. Judges must limit beatings, and an ox must be allowed to eat while working. A deceased brother’s name is to be preserved through marriage and offspring. The laws also prescribe a severe penalty for a woman who seizes a man’s genitals during a fight, forbid dishonest weights, and command Israel to remember Amalek’s attack and destroy its memory.

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1If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment and the judges judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.
2It shall be, if the wicked man is 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.
3He may sentence him to no more than forty stripes. He shall not give more, lest if he should give more and beat him more than that many stripes, then your brother will be degraded in your sight.
4You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.
5If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
6It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.
7If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.”
9then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his sandal from off his foot, and spit in his face. She shall answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.”
12then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.
13You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, one heavy and one light.
15You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
16For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God.
17Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt,
18how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God.
19Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Deuteronomy 25:4The command about the working ox extends the chapter’s concern for fair treatment to animals that labor.
Deuteronomy 25:5This law establishes a brother’s duty toward a childless widow, with the stated aim of preserving the deceased brother’s name.
Deuteronomy 25:13The ban on unequal weights brings God’s demand for justice into the tools used for everyday trade.
Where this chapter reaches

Proverbs shares the condemnation of dishonest weights, while 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy quote the command about the ox in teaching about support for workers. Ruth shares the concern for preserving a dead man’s name through marriage, and Matthew records a question posed to Jesus based on the brother’s marriage duty.

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After reading the whole chapter

What do you notice about the limit on punishment and its concern for a brother’s dignity?

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Which law in this chapter is hardest for you to understand, and what remains unclear?

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Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 25

What does Deuteronomy 25:4 mean about not muzzling an ox?

An ox treading grain helps separate the edible kernels from the stalks and husks. A muzzle would prevent it from eating as it worked. The command forbids that restraint. Within this chapter’s laws for Israel, even a working animal must have access to the food beneath its feet.

Why does Deuteronomy 25 require a man to marry his brother’s widow?

The law addresses brothers living together when one dies without a son. Its stated purpose is to preserve the dead brother’s name in Israel through the widow’s firstborn. The surviving brother can refuse, but the widow may bring his refusal before the elders, followed by a public act of disgrace.

Why does Deuteronomy 25:12 command cutting off a woman’s hand?

The penalty concerns a specific act: a woman intervenes in a fight by grabbing the other man’s genitals. The text commands cutting off her hand and forbids pity. It does not explain the penalty’s rationale. Concern about reproductive injury may help explain it, but that reason is inferred rather than stated.

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What the Bible says about anger →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).