Deuteronomy 25:11

11, 12. Of Reckless Assault

The woman who, even to help her husband, grasps the secrets of another Israelite wrestling with him shall have her hand cut off.—Peculiar to D, and in the Sg. address with brother as in other Sg. passages; but with an opening, and an accumulation of conditions similar to those in other laws probably borrowed by D. The additions may be the superfluous a man and his brother (Deu_25:11, R.V. one with another) and thine eye shall not pity (Deu_25:12, cp. Deu_7:16). Strive, rather are wrestling (as in E, Exo_21:22; cp. Exo_2:13, Lev_24:10, 2Sa_14:6). Secrets, lit. pudenda, only here. The position of the law just here may be due to the catchword his brother, cp. Deu_25:9.

This very special case is probably meant to be typical of others (cp. Deu_19:5). The punishment is the only mutilation prescribed by D apart from the jus talionis (Deu_19:21). It is usually supposed to have had its origin at a time when such an act was the violation of a very sacred taboo. In Ḫammurabi, §§ 202–205, there are (if the translation can be relied on) parallel crimes. Mutilation is also decreed there for other crimes.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25:11-12 cut off her hand: The woman’s act would emasculate the man, depriving him of (or cutting off from him) any offspring. As with the previous law (25:9), the punishment fits the crime (lex talionis; see study note on 19:21).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This law importeth that godly shamefastness be preserved: for it is an horrible thing to see a woman past shame.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

When men strive together, one with another,.... Quarrel with one another, and come to blows, and strive for mastery, which shall beat, and be the best man:

and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him; perceiving that his antagonist has more skill or strength, or both, for fighting, and is an more than a match for her husband, who is like to be much bruised and hurt; wherefore, to save him out of the hands of the smiter, she goes up to them to part them, or take her husband's side:

and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets; or privy parts; in Hebrew his "shameful" parts (x), which through shame are hidden, and modesty forbids to express in proper terms; and such is the purity of the Hebrew language, that no obscene words are used in it; for which reason, among others, it is called the holy tongue. This immodest action was done partly out of affection to her husband, to oblige his antagonist to let go his hold of him; and partly out of malice and revenge to him, to spoil him, and make him unfit for generation, and therefore was to be severely punished, as follows.

(x) "verenda ejus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version; "pudenda ejus", Piscator.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

11, 12. When men strive — According to Van Lennep (Bible Lands, p. 630, note) this is “explained by the fact that wrestlers are habitually on the alert to avail themselves of the chance to disable an antagonist by the means interdicted in this passage. The prohibition implies that the practice was common.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 11, 12. But though the childless widow might thus approach and lay hold on the man, no license was thus granted to women to pass beyond the bounds of decency in their approaches to the other sex. Hence the prohibition in these verses. The severe sentence here prescribed was by the rabbins commuted into a fine of the value of the hand.

Vers. 11, 12. An offending hand.

This maybe compared with Mat_5:30.

1. Any member of the body may become an instrument of sin.

2. Where there is in any case special danger there should a special watch be kept.

3. Favorite, yet sinful lusts must be crucified, whatever the cost may be.

Vers. 11-16. Honesty the best policy.

We have first a law of purity, which needs no exposition, but in its holy severity (vers. 11, 12) was fitted to check all tendency to lewd practices among the women of Israel. Then Moses passes on to speak of the crime of having divers weights and measures, and the effort to make money by dishonest practices. No blessing from God can rest upon such willfully dishonest ones; if his blessing is to be experienced, it must be by a policy of honesty all round.

I IT IS APPARENTLY EASY TO MAKE MONEY BY LIGHT WEIGHTS AND SHORT MEASURES. It is not only securing the ordinary profits, but gaining by the deficiency palmed off for the perfect measure. It is a gain by quantity as well as by price. And plenty of people who look only at the surface imagine that they can easily enrich themselves by a little dishonesty, which will never be detected. Inspectors of weights and measures are the embodiment of the suspicions of society.

II IT IS A SYSTEM OF BUSINESS UPON WHICH NO DIVINE BLESSING CAN BE ASKED. NO better test of the propriety of our procedure can be found than this. Will it stand the test of prayer? Can God, the All-holy One, be expected to bless it? Now, his whole Word shows that such practices are abominations to him. The stars of heaven will at length fight against such a policy.

III NO TEMPORARY SUCCESS CAN COMPENSATE FOR AN UNEASY CONSCIENCE. Suppose that success waited on dishonesty invariably and proved lasting, life would be made miserable by the uneasy conscience. Stifled for a time, it rises like the furies at last, and makes life a lasting misery. No man ever trifled with conscience anal did not suffer for it. Success becomes in such a case but a whited sepulcher; the experience within is but the rottenness of the tomb.

IV HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY FOR PERSONAL PEACE AND FOR DIVINE BLESSING. We say that no man should so far outrage his conscience as to be dishonest. Honesty is a policy to be pursued for its own sake, as the only condition of personal peace. Were there no Divine blessing in question at all, conscientious men would be as honest as they are now.

At the same time, it makes the honesty all the happier that it lies in the sunshine of the Infinite Presence, and that his radiant smile is on it. There is no danger of a mercenary spirit entering into such a relation with God. He so wraps us round that in his circle of love it would be most ungrateful and most dissonant to practice dishonesty.

With people under a theocracy, or reign of God, we should expect to find just weights and full measures. The visits of the inspectors should prove superfluous with all those whose life lies open as the day to the inspection of their King. R.M.E.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

"But in order that the great independence which is here accorded to a childless widow in relation to her brother-in-law, might not be interpreted as a false freedom granted to the female sex" (Baumgarten), the law is added immediately afterwards, that a woman whose husband was quarrelling with another, and who should come to his assistance by laying hold of the secret parts of the man who was striking her husband, should have her hand cut off.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Correct Weights and Measures

v. 11. when men strive together one with another, become engaged in fisticuffs, 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,

v. 12. then thou, the constituted authority, shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her. This precept was here inserted in order to guard against a false freedom and familiarity of the female sex toward those of the opposite sex.

v. 13. Thou shalt not have in thy bag, usually a large leather sack or purse, divers weights, a great and a small, a set of large stones for purchases, a set of small ones for sales. This could be done both where stones and where scraps of iron were used by the merchants.

v. 14. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small, a large ephah or dry measure for purchases, a small ephah for sales.

v. 15. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, each one, whether in the shop or in the house, complete, whole, holding just the amount which it was supposed to hold, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee, in the matter of receiving temporal blessings, Deu 4:26; Deu 5:16.

v. 16. For all that do such things, in making use of dishonesty in any form, and all that do unrighteously, any one guilty of deliberate wrong-doing, are an abomination unto the Lord, thy God. But this consideration shown the neighbor at home was not to degenerate into a false weakness and indulgence toward enemies whose extermination the Lord had decided upon.

v. 17. Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt, Exo 17:8;

v. 18. how he met thee by the way, namely, at Rephidim near Horeb, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. The inhumanity practiced by the Amalekites in thus injuring and destroying the stragglers of the Israelitish army showed that there was no fear of God in their ranks.

v. 19. 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 in heritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it. Cf 12:10; Exo 17:14; Deu 9:7. Israel, acting as God’s agent, carried out this command at the time of Saul, 1 Samuel 15.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

Moses speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)

out of the hand of him who struck him

Here "hand" refers to power or control. AT: "so the one who struck him will not strike him again" or "from the man who hit him" (See: Metonymy)

your eye must have no pity

Here "eye" means the whole person. AT: "you should not feel sorry for her" or "you must not show her mercy" (See: Synecdoche)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

כי ינצו אנשים WHEN MEN STRIVE TOGETHER, they will in the end come to blows, as it goes on to state “[and the wife approacheth to deliver her husband]” out of the hand of him who smiteth him: No good can come out of a quarrel (Sifrei Devarim 292:1; cf. Rashi on v. 1).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.