Deuteronomy 25:1
New International Version
When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty.

New Living Translation
“Suppose two people take a dispute to court, and the judges declare that one is right and the other is wrong.

English Standard Version
“If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty,

Berean Standard Bible
If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.

King James Bible
If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

New King James Version
“If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

New American Standard Bible
“If there is a dispute between people and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they declare the righteous innocent and pronounce the wicked guilty,

NASB 1995
“If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

NASB 1977
“If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

Legacy Standard Bible
“If there is a dispute between men and they go to court for judgment, and the judges judge their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

Amplified Bible
“If there is a controversy between men, and they go to court, and the judges decide [the issue] between them, and they judge in favor of the innocent and condemn the guilty,

Christian Standard Bible
“If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court, and the judges will hear their case. They will clear the innocent and condemn the guilty.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court, and the judges will hear their case. They will clear the innocent and condemn the guilty.

American Standard Version
If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
"And if there shall be a judicial case between a man and his neighbor, let them approach the Judges and they shall judge them and they shall justify the innocent and they shall condemn the guilty.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And if there should be a dispute between men, and they should come forward to judgment, and the judges judge, and justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked:

Douay-Rheims Bible
If there be a controversy between men, and they call upon the judges: they shall give the prize of justice to him whom they perceive to be just: and him whom they find to be wicked, they shall condemn of wickedness.

English Revised Version
If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
This is what you must do whenever [two] people have a disagreement that is brought into court. The judges will hear the case and decide who's right and who's wrong.

Good News Translation
"Suppose two Israelites go to court to settle a dispute, and one is declared innocent and the other guilty.

International Standard Version
"When there is a conflict between individuals, let them come to court to judge the case, decide who is innocent, and condemn the guilty person.

JPS Tanakh 1917
If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, and the judges judge them, by justifying the righteous, and condemning the wicked,

Literal Standard Version
“When there is a strife between men, and they have come near to the judgment, and they have judged, and declared righteous the righteous, and declared wrong the wrongdoer,

Majority Standard Bible
If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.

New American Bible
When there is a dispute and the parties draw near for judgment, and a decision is given, declaring one party in the right and the other in the wrong,

NET Bible
If controversy arises between people, they should go to court for judgment. When the judges hear the case, they shall exonerate the innocent but condemn the guilty.

New Revised Standard Version
Suppose two persons have a dispute and enter into litigation, and the judges decide between them, declaring one to be in the right and the other to be in the wrong.

New Heart English Bible
If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked;

Webster's Bible Translation
If there shall be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

World English Bible
If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment and the judges judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.

Young's Literal Translation
'When there is a strife between men, and they have come nigh unto the judgment, and they have judged, and declared righteous the righteous, and declared wrong the wrong-doer,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Fairness and Mercy
1If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned. 2If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants.…

Cross References
Exodus 22:9
In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any lost item that someone claims, 'This is mine,' both parties shall bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges find guilty must pay back double to his neighbor.

Exodus 23:7
Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.

Deuteronomy 1:16
At that time I charged your judges: "Hear the disputes between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.

Deuteronomy 1:17
Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it."

Deuteronomy 17:8
If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.

Deuteronomy 17:11
according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you.

Deuteronomy 19:17
both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.


Treasury of Scripture

If there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20
Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment…

Deuteronomy 17:8,9
If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose; …

Deuteronomy 19:17-19
Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; …

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Deuteronomy 25
1. Punishment must not exceed forty lashes
4. The ox is not to be muzzled
5. Of raising seed unto a brother
11. Of the immodest woman
13. Of unjust weights and measures
17. The memory of Amalek is to be blotted out














XXV.

Deuteronomy 25:1-3. HUMANITY IN PUNISHMENTS.

(1) They shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.--"I will not justify the wicked" (Exodus 23:7). "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord" (Proverbs 17:15). It should be noticed that justify is here used forensically, not meaning to make righteous, but to treat as righteous. Those who object to this sense in St. Paul's Epistles, will find it hard to put any other sense upon the word in the rest of Holy Scripture.

(2) If the wicked man be worthy to be beaten.--Literally, a son of beating, or of Haccoth, according to the Hebrew. The treatise called Maccoth, in the Talmud, describes the infliction of the punishment in later times, when "of the Jews five times" St. Paul "received forty stripes save one." The details have been described by Canon Farrar in an appendix to his Life of St. Paul.

Shall cause him to lie down.--The Talmud interprets the position as not sitting nor standing, nor exactly lying, but with the body inclined.

Before his face.--This is interpreted as on the front of his body. The thirty-nine stripes were given thirteen on one shoulder, thirteen on the other, and thirteen on the breast.

(3) Forty stripes.--The Talmud says that they considered first what a man could bear, and flogged him according to their estimate. In some cases, if the whole punishment could not be administered at once, it was divided. It is contemplated as possibly fatal, however. . . .

Verses 1-3. - The first and second verses should be read as one sentence, of which the protasis is in ver. 1 and the apodosis in ver. 2, thus: If there be a strife between men, and they come to judgment, and they (i.e. the judges) give judgment on them, and justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked, then it shall be, if the wicked deserve to be beaten (literally, be the son of blows), that the judge, etc. It is assumed that the judges shall pronounce just judgment, and apportion to the guilty party his due punishment; and then it is prescribed how that is to be inflicted. In the presence of the judge the man was to be cast down, and the adjudged number of blows were to be given him, not, however, exceeding forty, lest the man should be rendered contemptible in the eyes of the people, as if he were a mere slave or brute. This punishment was usually inflicted with a stick (Exodus 21:10; 2 Samuel 7:14, etc.), as is still the case among the Arabs and Egyptians; sometimes also with thorns (Judges 8:7, 16); sometimes with whips and scorpions, i.e. scourges of cord or leather armed with sharp points or hard knots (1 Kings 12:11, 14). Though the culprit was laid on the ground, it does not appear that the bastinado was used among the Jews as it is now among the Arabs; the back and shoulders were the parts of the body on which the blows fell (Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 19:29; Proverbs 26:3; Isaiah 1:6). According to his fault, by a certain number; literally, according to the requirement of his crime in number; i.e. according as his crime deserved. The number was fixed at forty, probably because of the symbolical significance of that number as a measure of completeness. The rabbins fixed the number at thirty-nine, apparently in order that the danger of exceeding the number prescribed by the Law should be diminished (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:24); but another reason is assigned by Maimonides, viz. that, as the instrument of punishment was a scourge with three tails, each stroke counted for three, and thus they could not give forty, but only thirty-nine, unless they exceeded the forty (Maimon., 'In Sanhedrin,' 17:2).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
If
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

there is
יִהְיֶ֥ה (yih·yeh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

a dispute
רִיב֙ (rîḇ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7379: Strife, dispute

between
בֵּ֣ין (bên)
Preposition
Strong's 996: An interval, space between

men,
אֲנָשִׁ֔ים (’ă·nā·šîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 582: Man, mankind

they are to go
וְנִגְּשׁ֥וּ (wə·nig·gə·šū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Nifal - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 5066: To draw near, approach

to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

court
הַמִּשְׁפָּ֖ט (ham·miš·pāṭ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4941: A verdict, a sentence, formal decree, divine law, penalty, justice, privilege, style

to be judged,
וּשְׁפָט֑וּם (ū·šə·p̄ā·ṭūm)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural | third person masculine plural
Strong's 8199: To judge, pronounce sentence, to vindicate, punish, to govern, to litigate

so that the innocent
הַצַּדִּ֔יק (haṣ·ṣad·dîq)
Article | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 6662: Just, righteous

may be acquitted
וְהִצְדִּ֙יקוּ֙ (wə·hiṣ·dî·qū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 6663: To be just or righteous

and the guilty
הָרָשָֽׁע׃ (hā·rā·šā‘)
Article | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 7563: Wrong, an, bad person

condemned.
וְהִרְשִׁ֖יעוּ (wə·hir·šî·‘ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 7561: To be, wrong, to disturb, violate


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OT Law: Deuteronomy 25:1 If there be a controversy between men (Deut. De Du)
Deuteronomy 24:22
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