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The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:4
The rights of labor. The threshing in the East is done by oxen in many cases still, though horses, where procurable, are found more serviceable. While the animals were engaged in their weary round, they were never muzzl…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:5
Dwell together; i.e. not necessarily in the same house, but in the same community or place (cf. Genesis 13:6; Genesis 26:7). And have no child; literally, have no son; but this is rightly interpreted as meaning child (s…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:5-10
Levirate marriages. If a man who was married died without issue, his surviving brother was required to marry the widow, so as to raise up a successor to the deceased, who should be his heir. The brother who refused this…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:5-10
Family honor to be maintained. This law supposes a state of society and a kind of public opinion which does not now exist, and in detail it is therefore obsolete. But the principle it involves is clear, viz. that in mar…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:5-10
The levitate law. At the root of this law, which obtained widely in the East, we find ideas and feelings such as these— I. RESPECT FOR THE HONOR OF THE FAMILY. In the East, as is well known, childlessness is reckoned a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:5-10
The rights of the firstborn. We have already observed that the firstborn had a right to a double share of the family inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:17). We have before us another of his rights—a seed was to be raised up un…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:6
Shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead; literally, shall rise up on the name of his deceased brother; i.e. shall be enrolled in the family register as heir of the deceased, and shall perpetuate his name.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:7-10
If the man refused to marry the widow of his deceased brother, he was free to do so; but the woman had her redress. She was to bring the matter before the eiders of the town, sitting as magistrates at the gate, and they…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:11-16
Honesty the best policy. We have first a law of purity, which needs no exposition, but in its holy severity (Deuteronomy 25:11, Deuteronomy 25:12) was fitted to check all tendency to lewd practices among the women of Is…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:13
Diverse weights; literally, a stone and a stone—a large one for buying, and a small one for selling (cf. Amos 8:5). Both weights and measures were to be "perfect," i.e. exactly correct, and so just. (On the promise in D…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:13-16
Righteousness in trade imperative. This paragraph requires no preparatory elucidation. The topic for a Homily which it gives is one of the most important in the range of human ethics. It furnishes six lines of thought.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:13-16
Morality in trade. The Hebrew lawgiver lays just stress on honesty in weights and measures. The general principle is that of honesty in trade. Weights and measures connect themselves intimately with the ideas of justice…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:13-16
Religion inspires commercial life. It is certain that God displays the liveliest interest in every department of human life. He is not only the God of the hills; he is God of the valleys also. He takes cognizance, not o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:13-16
Rectitude and integrity in trade are here anew inculcated (cf. Le 19:35, etc.).
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:16
(Cf. Deuteronomy 22:5; Deuteronomy 23:12.) All that do unrighteously; equivalent to all that transgress any law.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:17-19
Cowardice and cruelty avenged. The feeling of resentment must be classed "low" among the moral sentiments. But this command to remember and to avenge the conduct of Amalek is not resentment. Abundant time was allowed th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:17-19
Amalek. Moses, in calling the sin of Amalek to remembrance, and enjoining destruction of that people, was not speaking "of himself." He but declared the will of God, long before announced, and solemnly recorded in a boo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:17-19
The extermination of the merciless. The crime of the Amalekites was falling upon the hindmost, who were faint and weary. It was an act of judgment untempered by any mercy; and the decree of God is their extermination be…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:17-19
Kindness to enemies is not to degenerate into sympathy with or indifference to ungodliness. God is kind. God is terrible. When he riseth up against sin to punish it openly, who—who can stand? The repeated injunctions in…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:17-19
Whilst in their intercourse with each other the law of love and brotherly kindness was to predominate, it was to be otherwise in regard to the enemies of God and his people. Them they were to overcome by force; wickedne…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:18
And smote the hindmost of thee; literally, and tailed thee; i.e. cut off thy tail, or rear. The verb ( זִנֵּב) occurs only here and in Joshua 10:19. It is a denominative from זָנָב, a tail, and, like many denominatives,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Of the firstfruits the Israelite was to take a portion, and placing it in a basket, to bring it to the place of the sanctuary, where it was to be received by the attendant priest. The offerer was to accompany his presen…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:1-19
EXPOSITION THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER AT THE PRESENTATION OF FIRSTFRUITS AND TITHES. As Moses began his exposition of the laws and rights instituted for Israel by a reference to the sanctuary as the place which the Lord sh…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Joy in the use of temporal mercies; or, sanctification of our possessions to God warrants a holy joy in the use of them. The order of thought is this: 1. In due time Israel would be in possession of the land which the L…