Catholic Commentary on Deuteronomy 25

"Do not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures." (Deuteronomy 25:13-15)

Laws of Fairness and Memory

Moses gives a collection of laws about fairness. When men are in dispute and one is flogged, the number of lashes must not exceed forty; more than that would be degrading. Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out grain. When a man dies without a son, his brother must marry the widow to carry on the family name; if he refuses, the widow performs the ceremony of removing the sandal in public shame. If two men are fighting and one man's wife seizes the other man's private parts to help her husband, her hand must be cut off without pity. Do not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land.

The chapter closes with a command about Amalek: remember what they did to you on the way out of Egypt, attacking those who were faint and weary at the rear. When God gives rest in the land, blot out the name of Amalek. The command to remember is the counter to the human tendency to forget historical wrongs against the vulnerable, just as the command to accurate weights is the counter to the human tendency to use power asymmetries for financial advantage. The Catechism grounds both commands in the virtue of justice: right relationships require accurate memory and honest dealing (CCC 1807).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, accurate and honest weights and measures so that you may live long in the land. The covenant community's economic integrity is not a peripheral matter but a condition of its flourishing. The culture of dishonest dealing, of two different weights depending on who you are dealing with, is the culture that loses the land. Let your weights be accurate. In every transaction.

Prayer

Lord God, you require accurate weights and honest measures as a condition of covenant flourishing. Deliver us from the double standard that deals honestly with some and dishonestly with others. Let our word and our measure be the same for every person we deal with. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

25
Fairness and Mercy
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.* 25:4 Cited in 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18
Widowhood and Marriage
 
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.† 25:5 Cited in Matthew 22:24, Mark 12:19, and Luke 20:28 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 steps in 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.
Standard Weights and Measures
(Proverbs 11:1–3; Ezekiel 45:10–12)
 
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.
Revenge on the Amalekites
 
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!

*25:4 25:4 Cited in 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18

†25:5 25:5 Cited in Matthew 22:24, Mark 12:19, and Luke 20:28

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