Deuteronomy 25:3-5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the judge) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “Forty blows he may strike him”; however, since the judge is to witness the punishment (v. 2) it is unlikely the judge himself administered it.
3. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “your brothers” but not limited only to an actual sibling; cf. NAB) “your kinsman”; NRSV, NLT “your neighbor.”
4. Deuteronomy 25:4 tn Heb “an.” By implication this is one’s own animal.
5. Deuteronomy 25:5 tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”
6. Deuteronomy 25:5 sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).