Deuteronomy 25:12

Then thou shall cut off her hand,.... Which was to be done not by the man that strove with her husband, or by any bystander, but by the civil magistrate or his order. This severity was used to deter women from such an immodest as well as injurious action, who on such an occasion are very passionate and inconsiderate. Our Lord is thought to refer to this law, Matthew 5:30 ; though the Jewish writers interpret this not of actual cutting off the hand, but of paying a valuable consideration, a price put upon it; so Jarchi; and Aben Ezra compares it with the law of retaliation, "eye for eye", Exodus 21:24 ; which they commonly understand of paying a price for the both, &c. lost; and who adds, if she does not redeem her hand (i.e. by a price) it must be cut off: thine eye shall not pity her; on account of the tenderness of her sex, or because of the plausible excuse that might be made for her action, being done hastily and in a passion, and out of affection to her husband; but these considerations were to have no place with the magistrate, who was to order the punishment inflicted, either in the strict literal sense, or by paying a sum of money.

Partly because of the great mischief she did to him, both to his person and posterity, and partly to deter all women from all immodest and impudent carriages, and to secure that modesty which is indeed the guardian of all the virtues, as immodesty is an inlet to all vices, as the sad experience of this degenerate age shows; and therefore it is not strange that it is so severely restrained and punished. Thine eye shall not pity her, which thou wilt be very apt to do, because of the infirmity of her sex, and the urgency of the occasion, this being done for the necessary preservation of her husband.

This is the only mutilation prescribed by the Law of Moses, unless we except the retaliation prescribed as a punishment for the infliction on another of bodily injuries Leviticus 24:19-20 . The act in question was probably not rare in the times and countries for which the Law of Moses was designed. It is of course to be understood that the act was willful, and that the prescribed punishment would be inflicted according to the sentence of the judges.

5-10. the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother … shall take her to him to wife—This usage existed before the age of Moses (Ge 38:8). But the Mosaic law rendered the custom obligatory (Mt 22:25) on younger brothers, or the nearest kinsman, to marry the widow (Ru 4:4), by associating the natural desire of perpetuating a brother's name with the preservation of property in the Hebrew families and tribes. If the younger brother declined to comply with the law, the widow brought her claim before the authorities of the place at a public assembly (the gate of the city); and he having declared his refusal, she was ordered to loose the thong of his shoe—a sign of degradation—following up that act by spitting on the ground—the strongest expression of ignominy and contempt among Eastern people. The shoe was kept by the magistrate as an evidence of the transaction, and the parties separated.

"But in order that the great independence which is here accorded to a childless widow in relation to her brother-in-law, might not be interpreted as a false freedom granted to the female sex" (Baumgarten), the law is added immediately afterwards, that a woman whose husband was quarrelling with another, and who should come to his assistance by laying hold of the secret parts of the man who was striking her husband, should have her hand cut off.

The duty of integrity in trade is once more enforced in Deuteronomy 25:13-16 (as in Leviticus 19:35-36 ). "Stone and stone," i.e., two kinds of stones for weighing (cf. Psalm 12:3 ), viz., large ones for buying and small ones for selling. On the promise in Deuteronomy 25:15 , see Deuteronomy 4:26 ; Deuteronomy 5:16 ; Deuteronomy 25:16 , as in Deuteronomy 22:5 ; Deuteronomy 18:12 , etc. In the concluding words, Deuteronomy 25:16 , "all that do unrighteously," Moses sums up all breaches of the law.

There is much in favour of this suggestion; Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7 naturally continues Deuteronomy 12:29-31 and has phrases in common with this ( which thy God hateth and abomination ), while its second part commanding the punishment of idolatrous Israelites as naturally leads up to the three laws in Deuteronomy 13:2 ff. ( Deuteronomy 13:1 ff.). On the relation to Deuteronomy 12:29-31 of Deuteronomy 18:9-12 , also on the sacrifice of children, see on the latter passage. A further difficulty is Deuteronomy 12:32 ( Deuteronomy 13:1 ), see the note on it. Deuteronomy 12:29 . When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations ] So Deuteronomy 19:1 (cp. deuter. Joshua 23:4 f.); beyond this the verses differ. whither thou goest in to dispossess them ] Characteristic of the Sg. passages, cp. Deuteronomy 9:5 ; Deuteronomy 19:1 has whose land the Lord thy God is about to give thee . and thou shalt have dispossessed them ] So Deuteronomy 19:1 : R.V. succeedest them . and dwellest in their land ] Deuteronomy 19:1 , their cities . Deuteronomy 12:30 . take heed to thyself ] See Deuteronomy 6:12 . ensnared to follow them ] snared away after them ; cp. Deuteronomy 7:16 ; Deuteronomy 7:25 . inquire not after ] See on seek, Deuteronomy 12:5 .