Bible Commentaries

If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, ^a that [the judges] may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

(a) Whether there is a plaintiff or not, the magistrates should try our faults, and punish according to the crime.

And it shall be, if the wicked man [be] worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, ^b and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.

(b) When the crime does not deserve death.

^c Forty stripes he may give him, [and] not exceed: lest, [if] he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

(c) The superstition Jews later removed one, (2 Corinthians 11:24).

If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her ^d husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.

(d) Because the Hebrew word does not signify the natural brother, and the word that signifies a brother, is taken also for a kinsman: it seems that it does not mean that the natural brother should marry his brothers wife, but some other kindred that was in the degree that might marry.

^e When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:

(e) This law imputes that godly shamefacedness is preferred: for it is a horrible thing to see a woman past shame.

Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance to possess it, [that] thou shalt blot out the ^f remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget [it].

(f) This was partly accomplished by Saul, about 450 years later.