Tuesday 17 December 2013

Deuteronomy 25 When not to stand up for one's husband

Deuteronomy 25

This chapter carries on the theme of the last chapter - various laws.
The first law is about the rule of law, court cases are to be heard with judges and swift justice.
Nobody is to be beaten more than 40 times - this is apparently crossing a line between punishment and justice and humiliation. 

If you are using an animal as labour (for example grinding grain) it must not be muzzled to prevent it eating some of the grain it is grinding.

If a Hebrew man dies without children, his brother is expected to marry his widow to keep the family land intact. If he refuses she should make a complaint to the town elders, remove his sandel and spit in his face saying "this is what happens to the man who will not build up his brothers family line". The family name will then be changed to "unsandaled".

The next one is a salutary law - I don't know if it was ever enforced - if 2 men are fighting and the wife of one of the men joins in grabbing the testicles of the other man the wife's hand is to be cut off. This sounds rather barbaric to me not to mention uncomfortable to the wife who will suffer much more in the long term than the other man!

If one is in commerce as well as science or engineering it is very important that weights, measures and units are common and fair - using dishonest weights, lengths and scales are totally forbidden.
In science it is very important that we agree on what constitutes a kg, second, volt, amp, metre and so on,


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