Deuteronomy 25:11

When men strive together one with another, 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:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:5-12 The custom here regulated seems to have been in the Jewish law in order to keep inheritances distinct; now it is unlawful.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The house ... - Equivalent to "the house of the barefooted one." To go barefoot was a sign of the most abject condition; compare 2 Samuel 15:30.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5-10. the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother … shall take her to him to wife—This usage existed before the age of Moses (Ge 38:8). But the Mosaic law rendered the custom obligatory (Mt 22:25) on younger brothers, or the nearest kinsman, to marry the widow (Ru 4:4), by associating the natural desire of perpetuating a brother's name with the preservation of property in the Hebrew families and tribes. If the younger brother declined to comply with the law, the widow brought her claim before the authorities of the place at a public assembly (the gate of the city); and he having declared his refusal, she was ordered to loose the thong of his shoe—a sign of degradation—following up that act by spitting on the ground—the strongest expression of ignominy and contempt among Eastern people. The shoe was kept by the magistrate as an evidence of the transaction, and the parties separated.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

{e} When men strive together one with another, 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:

(e) This law imputes that godly shamefacedness is preferred: for it is a horrible thing to see a woman past shame.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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 (Deuteronomy 25:11, R.V. one with another) and thine eye shall not pity (Deuteronomy 25:12, cp. Deuteronomy 7:16). Strive, rather are wrestling (as in E, Exodus 21:22; cp. Exodus 2:13, Leviticus 24:10, 2 Samuel 14:6). Secrets, lit. pudenda, only here. The position of the law just here may be due to the catchword his brother, cp. Deuteronomy 25:9.

This very special case is probably meant to be typical of others (cp. Deuteronomy 19:5). The punishment is the only mutilation prescribed by D apart from the jus talionis (Deuteronomy 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.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 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. Deuteronomy 25:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"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.