“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. 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” (Deut. 25.2-3).
“Now it follows: That the wicked man shall be condemned according to his desert. There is here no mention of such offences as were to be punished by death. For if there were murder committed, or adultery, or such like thing; they were punished by death. We have seen how God commanded that all such kinds of wickedness should be utterly rooted out: but here he speaks but of such injuries as deserve some other chastisement. And that is the cause why it is said, That the malefactor shall be punished according to his desert, yet so has he shall not have above forty stripes. For they used a whip made of an oxe hide, to chastise them which dealt wrongfully and outrageously with their neighbor, always provided that the offence deserved not death. It is said: That they shall not pass the number of forty strips. And why? To the intent that the man should not be mangled or disfigured in his body, but remain whole and found. You see then in effect what is here declared, to wit, first that the sentence must not be given in vain: and secondly that some moderation must be used, so as the rigor be not excessive. . . .
“Moreover secondly in this place here is mention made of moderating the chastisements which are used. For the judges ought always to consider that they fit in justice in the behalf of God, and therefore into that seat which is holy and dedicated to the doing of right, they may not bring their own passions, to feed their own choler, and to deal crossly and overwartly as they themselves lift. God therefore in saying, that there shall be a certain number of stripes, declares expressly that there must be a reasonable measure used in punishing. Verily when a man is not to be clean rooted out, but to live still in the world, God will not have him maimed that he should become unprofitable as touching h is body. For what a thing were it if a man should be so rigorously handled as to be made a cripple so as he can no more help himself? It were better he had been put to death at the first, than to be left to pine away in this world, and to be as a block. Now therefore when a man is to be left alive still, GOD will have the judges to ave a regard that he be not beaten of scourged in such wise as he disfigured or made unable to help himself. That is the very thing which God will have men to look unto.”
Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy, in loc.
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