Deuteronomy 25:3

he strikes him forty [times]; he is not adding, lest he is adding to strike him above these many stripes, and your brother be lightly esteemed in your eyes.

Literal Standard Version

In The King James Version

Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

In Context

2then it has come to pass, if the wrongdoer is to be struck, that the judge has caused him to fall down, and [one] has struck him in his presence, according to the sufficiency of his wrongdoing, by number;

4You do not muzzle an ox in its threshing.

Read all of Deuteronomy 25

Cross References

Luke 15:30but when your son—this one who devoured your living with prostitutes—came, you killed to him the fatted calf.

2 Corinthians 11:24Five times I received from Jews forty [stripes] except one;

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 25:2-5

Stripes Not to Exceed Forty. ( b. c. 1451.) 1 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. 2 And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. 3 Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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