In a certain sense, the quintessence of all the norms of the Book of Deuteronomy is contained in one saying: everyone who does all this, who acts unrighteously, is an abomination to Yahweh. The original text uses a word meaning...
In a certain sense, the quintessence of all the norms of the Book of Deuteronomy is contained in one saying: everyone who does all this, who acts unrighteously, is an abomination to Yahweh. The original text uses a word meaning crookedness or twistedness, a dislocation, something from which one does not die, but with which it is also impossible to live normally because it is impossible to move normally.
This dislocation can manifest itself in different ways, but most often it makes itself known in small things. Minor sins mean precisely that a person cannot move freely where his spiritual life is concerned. If a person's arm or leg is dislocated or otherwise injured, this will show itself in a limp or in a certain awkwardness of movement. Such a person will not be able to move normally, freely, as healthy people move, until he is freed from the consequences of his injury.
The same applies to spiritual life: here too there will be no normal, full spiritual movement until a person is freed from his spiritual injury. The only difference is that one cannot always be freed from a physical injury (more precisely, from its consequences), while one can almost always be freed from the spiritual injury produced by sin, although sometimes this is not easy. Minor sins such as short measuring or short weighing do not in themselves cause serious harm to the one who is shorted, at least not material harm.
They turn out, however, to be symptoms of a far more serious problem connected with a person's spiritual condition, with his habitual sinfulness, when sin ceases to be recognized as such and becomes a habit. In such a case it sometimes even ceases to be called by the name of the sin that it is in essence - as in the case of short measuring or short weighing, which, even when the amount is small, still remains theft. Often, however, in the consciousness of those who act this way, these things are not perceived precisely as theft at all, but are considered simply a way of earning a little extra, dishonest perhaps, yet permissible because everyone does it. Meanwhile, the soul is being trained to steal - first in small things, and then in large ones.
One can object, of course, that large-scale theft may not work out; the person may come to his senses and refuse. In the best case for the person, that is what will happen, but it can also be otherwise: the soul is already spiritually dislocated, already limited and fettered in its inner movements, and therefore in the decisions it makes. This fettering of the soul becomes the natural environment for any sin, perhaps even a very serious one, if circumstances come together that way.
25 Stripes not to exceed forty, Deu 25:1-3.
The ox not to be muzzled, Deu 25:4.
Of marrying the brother's widow, Deu 25:5-10.
Of an immodest woman, Deu 25:11-12.
Of just weights and measures, Deu 25:13-16.
Amalek to be destroyed, Deu 25:17-19.
25:1 Justify - Acquit him from guilt and false accusations, and free him from punishment.
25:2 Beaten - Which the Jews say was the case of all those crimes which the law commands to be punished, without expressing the kind or degree of punishment. Before his face - That the punishment may be duly inflicted, without excess or defect. And from this no person's rank or quality exempted him, if he was a delinquent.
25:3 Forty stripes - It seems not superstition, but prudent caution, when the Jews would not exceed thirty - nine stripes, lest through mistake or forgetfulness they should go beyond their bounds, which they were commanded to keep. Should seem vile - Should be made contemptible to his brethren, either by this cruel usage of him, as if he were a brute beast: or by the deformity or infirmity of body which excessive beating might produce.
25:4 He treadeth out the corn - Which they did in those parts, either immediately by their hoofs on by drawing carts or other instruments over the corn. Hereby God taught them humanity, even to their beasts that served them, and much more to their servants or other men who laboured for them, especially to their ministers, Co1 9:9.
25:5 Together - In the same town, or at least country. For if the next brother had removed his habitation into remote parts, on were carried thither into captivity, then the wife of the dead had her liberty to marry the next kinsman that lived in the same place with her. One - Any of them, for the words are general, and the reason of the law was to keep up the distinction of tribes and families, that so the Messiah might be discovered by the family from which he was appointed to proceed; and also of inheritances, which were divided among all the brethren, the first - born having only a double portion. A stranger - To one of another family.
25:6 That his name be not put out - That a family be not lost. So this was a provision that the number of their families might not be diminished.
25:9 Loose his shoe - As a sign of his resignation of all his right to the woman, and to her husband's inheritance: for as the shoe was a sign of one's power and right, Psa 60:8 Deu 25, Psa 108:9, so the parting with the shoe was a token of the alienation of such right; and as a note of infamy, to signify that by this disingenuous action he was unworthy to be amongst free - men, and fit to be reduced to the condition of the meanest servants, who used to go barefoot, Isa 20:2, Isa 20:4.
25:10 His name - That is, his person, and his posterity also.So it was a lasting blot.
25:13 A great and a small - The great to buy with, the small for selling.
25:17 Out of Egypt - Which circumstance greatly aggravates their sin, that they should do thus to a people, who had been long exercised with sore afflictions, to whom pity was due by the laws of nature and humanity, and for whose rescue God had in so glorious a manner appeared, which they could not be ignorant of. So this was barbarousness to Israel, and setting the great Jehovah at defiance.