Deuteronomy 25:2-4

Evangelical Heritage Version

² if the guilty one is to be flogged, the judge is to make him lie down, and he will order him to be flogged in his presence with the number of blows that is proportionate to his guilt. ³ He may have him struck forty times, but no more, so that your brother does not become degraded in your eyes by receiving a severe beating that goes beyond this number.

⁴ You are not to muzzle an ox when it is threshing.