the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
King James Version
Deuteronomy 25:3
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.
Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; or else, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.
Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.
But don't hit a person more than forty times, because more than that would disgrace him before others.
The judge may sentence him to forty blows, but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite with contempt.
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 to thee.
Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.
"He may have him beaten forty times, but no more. He is not to be beaten with more stripes than these and he is not to be degraded [that is, treated like an animal] in your sight.
so oneli that tho passe not the noumbre of fourti, lest thi brother be to-rent viliche bifore thin iyen, and go awei.
forty [times] he doth smite him -- he is not adding, lest, he is adding to smite him above these -- many stripes, and thy brother is lightly esteemed in thine eyes.
He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.
Forty lashes is the most that you can be given, because more than that might make other Israelites think you are worthless.
Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.
He may be given forty blows, not more; for if more are given, your brother may be shamed before you.
Fourtie stripes he shall geue hym, and not passe: lest if he shoulde exceede, and beate hym aboue that with many stripes, thy brother should appeare despised and vile before thyne eyes.
but the maximum number is forty. He is not to exceed this; if he goes over this limit and beats him more than this, your brother will be humiliated before your eyes.
With forty [stripes] shall they beat him; they shall not exceed, lest, if they continue to beat him with many stripes above these, thy brother become despicable in thine eyes.
Don't hit anyone more than 40 times during punishment, because more than that means that their life is not important to you.
Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should be dishonoured before thine eyes.
Fourtie stripes he may giue him, and not exceed: lest if he should exceede, and beate him aboue these, with many stripes, then thy brother should seeme vile vnto thee.
The number may be as much as forty, but no more. If he is beaten more than this, your brother would be put to much shame in your eyes.
Forty lashes may be given but not more; if more lashes than these are given, your neighbor will be degraded in your sight.
forty stripes, may he give him not going beyond, - lest, if he do go beyond to smite him above these, with many stripes, then should thy brother be of no account in thine eyes.
Fortie stripes shal he cause him to haue & not past, lest if he should exceede and beate him aboue that with many stripes, thy brother should appeare despised in thy sight.
Forty stripes he may give him, but not more; test, if he should exceed, and scourge him above this number of stripes, then your brother would be hurt severely before your eyes.
He may be given as many as forty lashes, but no more; more than that would humiliate him publicly.
Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother depart shamefully torn before thy eyes.
Forty stripes may be given him, but not more; lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.
And they shall scourge him with forty stripes in number, they shall not inflict more; for if thou shouldest scourge him with more stripes beyond these stripes, thy brother will be disgraced before thee.
He may be flogged with forty lashes, but no more. Otherwise, if he is flogged with more lashes than these, your brother will be degraded in your sight.
Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.
He may beat him with forty lashes, and he shall not do more than these, so that he will not beat more in addition to these many blows, and your countryman would be degraded before your eyes.
He may give him forty stripes ; he shall not add more, lest, if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother would be dishonored before your eyes.
Whan they haue geue him fortye strypes, they shall beate him nomore, lest (yf there be mo strypes geuen him) he be beaten to moch, and thy brother be horrible before thine eyes.
"He may have him beaten forty times, but not more, so that he does not have him beaten with many more lashes than these, and that your brother does not become contemptible in your eyes.
Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight.
But never give more than forty lashes; more than forty lashes would publicly humiliate your neighbor.
"He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes.
He may strike him forty times but no more, lest he strike him with many more stripes than these and your brother be dishonored in your eyes.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
not exceed: 2 Corinthians 11:24, 2 Corinthians 11:25
vile unto thee: That is, be beaten so cruelly, that, by retaining the marks, he become contemptible in the eyes of his brethren. Amendment, and not this, was the object of the punishment. We should hate and despise the sin, but not the sinner. Job 18:3, Luke 15:30, Luke 18:9-12, James 2:2, James 2:3
Reciprocal: Nehemiah 13:25 - smote Matthew 10:17 - scourge Luke 12:47 - shall 2 Corinthians 6:5 - stripes
Cross-References
And made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.
And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord , she came to prove him with hard questions.
The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.
The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,
Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God ; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.
Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed,.... And that this number might not be exceeded, it is ordered by the Jewish canons that only thirty nine should be given; for it is asked b,
"with how many stripes do they beat him? with forty, save one, as it is said, in number "forty" that is, in the number which is next to forty;''
this they make out by joining the last word of Deuteronomy 25:2 with the first of this; and that this was an ancient sense of the law, and custom upon it, appears by the execution of it on the Apostle Paul; who was not indulged, but suffered the extremity of it as it was then understood,
Deuteronomy 25:2- :; moreover, that they might not exceed this number, they used to make a scourge of three lashes, so that every strike they fetched with it was reckoned for three stripes, and thirteen of them made thirty nine; wherefore if they added another stroke, it would have exceeded the number of stripes by two:
lest [if] he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes; they might diminish them, if a man was weak, and not able to bear them; but they might not exceed them, if a man was as strong as Samson, as Maimonides c says:
then thy brother should seem vile unto thee; as if he was a beast, and not a man, and much less a brother. The Targum of Jonathan is,
"lest he be in danger, and thy brother be vile;''
lest he be in danger of his life, and become vile, as a dead carcass; so the apostle calls dead bodies "vile bodies", Philippians 3:21; or in danger of being maimed, and becoming lame or deformed, and so be contemptible: and this punishment of beating with the Jews was not reckoned, according to their writers, reproachful, and as fixing a brand of infamy upon a person; but they were still reckoned brethren, and restored to their former dignities, whatsoever they possessed; so Maimonides d says,
"whoever commits a crime, and is beaten, he returns to his dignity, as it is said, "lest thy brother be vile in thine eyes"; when he is beaten, lo, he is thy brother; an high priest, that commits a crime, is beaten by three (i.e. a bench of three judges, by their order), as the rest of all the people, and he returns to his grandeur; but the head of the session (or court of judicature), that commits a crime, they beat him, but he does not return to his principality, nor even return to be as one of the rest of the sanhedrim; for they ascend in holiness, but do not descend.''
And yet Josephus represents it as a most infamous and scandalous punishment, as one would think indeed it should be; his words are e, speaking of the laws concerning travellers being allowed to gather grapes, and pluck ears of corn as they passed;
"he that does contrary to these laws receives forty stripes, save one, with a public scourge; a free man undergoes this most filthy (or disgraceful) punishment, because for the sake of gain he reproaches his dignity.''
b Misn. Maccot, c. 3. sect. 10. Vid. Buxtorf. Synagog. Jud. c. 25. p. 522, 523. c Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 17. sect. 1. d Ibid. sect. 7, 8, 9. e Antiqu. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 21.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The Jews to keep within the letter of the law fixed 39 stripes as the maximum (compare the marginal reference.). Forty signifies the full measure of judgment (compare Genesis 7:12; Numbers 14:33-34); but the son of Israel was not to be lashed like a slave at the mercy of another. The judge was always to be present to see that the Law in this particular was not overpassed.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Deuteronomy 25:3. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed — According to God's institution a criminal may receive forty stripes; not one more! But is the institution from above or not, that for any offence sentences a man to receive three hundred, yea, a thousand stripes? What horrible brutality is this! and what a reproach to human nature, and to the nation in which such shocking barbarities are exercised and tolerated! Most of the inhabitants of Great Britain have heard of Lord Macartney's embassy to the emperor of China, and they have also heard of its complete failure; but they have not heard the cause. It appears to have been partly occasioned by the following circumstance: A soldier had been convicted of some petty traffic with one of the natives, and he was sentenced by a court-martial to receive sixty lashes! Hear my author: -
"The soldiers were drawn up in form in the outer court of the place where we resided; and the poor culprit, being fastened to one of the pillars of the great portico, received his punishment without mitigation. The abhorrence excited in the breasts of the Chinese at this cruel conduct, as it appeared to them, was demonstrably proved by their words and looks. They expressed their astonishment that a people professing the mildest, the most benevolent religion on earth, as they wished to have it believed, could be guilty of such flagrant inattention to its merciful dictates. One of the principal Mandarins, who knew a little English, expressed the general sentiment, Englishmen too much cruel, too much bad." - Accurate account of Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, by an attendant on the embassy, l2mo., 1797, p. 88.
The following is Mr. Ainsworth's note on this verse: "This number forty the Scripture uses sundry times in cases of humiliation, affliction, and punishment. As Moses twice humbled himself in fasting and prayer forty days and forty nights, Deuteronomy 9:9; Deuteronomy 9:18. Elijah fasted forty days, 1 Kings 19:8; and our Saviour, Matthew 4:2. Forty years Israel was afflicted in the wilderness for their sins, Numbers 14:33-34. And forty years Egypt was desolate for treacherous dealing with Israel, Ezekiel 29:11-13. Forty days every woman was in purification for her uncleanness for a man-child that she bare, and twice forty days for a woman-child, Leviticus 12:4-5. Forty days and forty nights it rained at Noah's flood, Genesis 7:12. Forty days did Ezekiel bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, Ezekiel 4:6. Jonah preached, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, Jonah 3:4. Forty years' space the Canaanites had to repent after Israel came out of Egypt, and wandered so many years in the wilderness, Numbers 14:33. And thrice forty years the old world had Noah preaching unto them repentance, Genesis 6:3. It was forty days ere Christ ascended into heaven after his resurrection, Acts 1:3; Acts 1:9. And forty years' space he gave unto the Jews, from the time that they killed him, before he destroyed their city and temple by the Romans.
"By the Hebrews this law is expounded thus: How many stripes do they beat (an offender) with? With forty, lacking one: as it is written, (Deuteronomy 25:2; Deuteronomy 25:3,) by number forty, that is, the number which is next to forty, Talmud Bab, in Maccoth, chap. iii. This their understanding is very ancient, for so they practised in the apostles' days; as Paul testified: Of the Jews five times received I forty (stripes) save one; 2 Corinthians 11:24. But the reason which they give is not solid; as when they say, If it had been written FORTY IN NUMBER, I would say it were full forty; but being written IN NUMBER FORTY, it means the number which reckons forty next after it, that is, thirty-nine. By this exposition they confound the verses and take away the distinction. I rather think this custom was taken up by reason of the manner of their beating forespoken of, which was with a scourge that had three cords, so that every stroke was counted for three stripes, and then they could not give even forty, but either thirty-nine or forty-two, which was above the number set of God. And hereof they write thus: When they judge (or condemn) a sinner to so many (stripes) as he can bear, they judge not but by strokes that are fit to be trebled [that is, to give three stripes to one stroke, by reason of the three cords.] If they judge that he can bear twenty, they do not say he shall be beaten with one and twenty, to the end that they may treble the stripes, but they give him eighteen. - Maimon in Sanhedrin, chap. xvii., sec. 2. Thus he that was able to bear twenty stripes, had but eighteen: the executioner smote him but six times, for if he had smitten him the seventh they were counted one and twenty stripes, which was above the number adjudged: so he that was adjudged to forty was smitten thirteen times, which being counted one for three, make thirty-nine. And so R. Bechaios, writing hereof, says, The strokes are trebled; that is, every one is three, and three times thirteen are nine and thirty."
Thy brother be vile, or be contemptible. - By this God teaches us to hate and despise the sin, not the sinner, who is by this chastisement to be amended; as the power which the Lord hath given is to edification, not to destruction, 2 Corinthians 13:10.
