CHAPTER 25 May 8 
More Laws
If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment and the judges judge them, then they must justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. 2If the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence according to his wickedness, by number. 3Forty stripes he may give him. He must not exceed this number. If he should beat him with many more than forty stripes, then your brother may seem vile to you. 4You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. 5If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead should not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother should go in to her and take her to him as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6The firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, so that his name is not blotted out of Israel. 7If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then she shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me. 8Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he stands and says, I don’t want to take her; 9then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot, spit in his face, and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house. 10His name shall be called in Israel’, The house of him who had his shoe untied’. 11When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand and takes him by the private parts, 12then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity. 13You must not have in your bag different weights, a great and a small. 14You must not have in your house different measures, a great and a small. 15You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 16For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 17Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt, 18how he met you by the way and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary, and he didn’t fear God. 19Therefore when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, you must blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. Do not forget.

Commentary

25:3 There’s a tendency in us to be harsh in punishing others for their sin. This is psychologically explainable by our conscience for our own sins, and subconsciously realizing we deserve punishment; we then eagerly transfer this guilt and need for punishment onto others. Instead we are to confess our sins and believe that the final judgment for our sin was in Christ upon the cross; and if we believe this to the point of really feeling it, we will never punish anyone more than required, indeed we will be gracious to them as God has been to us.      
25:4 Moses' sensitivity is shown by the kind of laws he added in Deuteronomy; e.g. "You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain". This is quoted by Paul as being actually part of the Law (1 Cor. 9:9; 1 Tim. 5:18), showing that Moses was so attune with the mind of God that these practical extensions which his sensitivity led him to command Israel were indeed the inspired commandments of God. In the same way as we should not appear unreasonable to men (:3), so we should not to animals. There are other examples of sensitivity to the natural creation in Deuteronomy in 14:21; 20:19 [see notes there]. 
25:5 This tacitly allowed polygamy. Here we have an example where one principle [the one man: one woman ideal of Eden] is in conflict with another [to build up the family name of your childless brother]. God could have arranged ethics in a more simple manner; but He has allowed and in this case encouraged the development of such conflicts in order that we think and reason things through, and make whatever decision we do consciously and from our own desire rather than merely in mindless submission to a commandment.
25:11 The principle from this is that each person has a weakness, an exposed point in their lives or character, which we are aware of. We are not to use that to unfair advantage- because if we were touched in that way, we likewise could not endure. And God saves His weak people and has historically been angry with those who do such things (:18).
25:14 In your house- To avoid temptation it’s best to not even possess things which we may be tempted to misuse.