Deutéronome 25

¹ 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.

² If 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.

³ He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.

⁴ Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

Note · Deutéronome 25.1–4

La sanction n’efface pas la dignité et le travail ne justifie pas toute privation

Le nombre de coups est limité pour éviter que le frère soit avili. Le bœuf ne doit pas être muselé pendant le travail du grain ; Paul reprend ce verset en 1 Corinthiens 9.9. Le rapprochement chrétien avec le soutien des ouvriers ne rend pas sans intérêt le soin de l’animal lui-même.

⁵ When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

⁶ The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

⁷ But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”

⁸ Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,”

⁹ his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”

¹⁰ And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.”

¹¹ If two men are fighting, and the wife of one comes to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals,

¹² you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity.

Note · Deutéronome 25.5–12

La famille et le corps restent dans un cadre fortement contraignant

Le lévirat vise la continuité du nom et prévoit un refus public du frère. Le cas suivant impose une mutilation à une femme qui intervient dans une rixe. Cette sévérité ne peut être masquée par le seul souci d’ordre familial et ne confère aucun droit de violence corporelle au lecteur.

¹³ You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.

¹⁴ You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.

¹⁵ You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁶ For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

Note · Deutéronome 25.13–16

Le commerce ne doit pas posséder deux vérités

Les poids doubles permettraient d’ajuster la mesure selon son avantage. Le texte demande une justice qui reste la même lorsque l’on achète ou vend. La fidélité religieuse comprend donc la véracité des pratiques économiques, pas seulement celle de la parole prononcée au sanctuaire.

¹⁷ Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt,

¹⁸ how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God.

¹⁹ When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

Note · Deutéronome 25.17–19

Se souvenir d’une attaque ne donne pas une cible à chaque génération

Amalek est rappelé pour l’attaque de ceux qui traînaient à l’arrière, fatigués et vulnérables. L’ordre d’effacer sa mémoire demeure violent. Il ne peut servir à baptiser Amalek un groupe actuel ni à transmettre une obligation de haine ou de destruction contre ses descendants supposés.