Deuteronomy 25 – Flogging may be imposed on a person found guilty of an infraction, but not more than 40 strokes – “more than that would humiliate him publicly” (25:3). Do not muzzle ox treading out grain—even animals have a right to a reward for their labor. If brothers live on the same property, and one of them dies with no son, the surviving should take a deceased brother’s wife as his own so that children may be brought forth for that brother’s line. Now…

Deuteronomy 23 – Rules on who can and cannot be considered “among the Lord’s people”: not a man whose private parts have been removed, or born out of wedlock. The latter would have to wait 10 generations to have descendants considered “in.” Ammonite and Moabites who failed to permit the Jews to eat or drink while traveling from Egypt through their lands are “out” but the Edomites are “in” (after the 3^rd generation). Other rules involve keeping military camps clean…

Deuteronomy 21 – The laws we are reading about in this section of Deuteronomy are among the 613 that make up the full “Law of Moses” – the “mitzvoth.” Some very odd laws are put into place in this code, none stranger than the few here described: the concerns are understandable but the methods of dealing with them are hard to understand. If a dead body is found – a murdered person – you need to go to the leaders of the town nearest to where it’s found, get a young cow (under a year)…