Deuteronomy 25 · Verse 4

Deuteronomy 25:4

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
Deuteronomy 25:4, King James Version

Deuteronomy 25:4 in other translations

BSBDo not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
WEBYou shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.
ASVThou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the grain.
YLT‘Thou dost not muzzle an ox in its threshing.
DARBYThou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
BBEDo not keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it.
WebsterThou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

What does Deuteronomy 25:4 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
4. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn--In Judea, as in modern Syria and Egypt, the larger grains were beaten out by the feet of oxen, which, yoked together, day after day trod round the wide open spaces which form the threshing-floors. The animals were allowed freely to pick up a mouthful, when they chose to do so: a wise as well as humane regulation, introduced by the law of Moses (compare 1Co 9:9; 1Ti 5:17, 18).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox, etc. - In Judea, as well as in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, they make use of beeves to tread out the corn; and Dr. Shaw tells us that the people of Barbary continue to tread out their corn after the custom of the East. Instead of beeves they frequently made use of mules and horses, by tying by the neck three or four in like manner together, and whipping them afterwards round about the nedders, as they call the treading floors, (the Libycae areae Hor), where the sheaves lie open and expanded, in the same manner as they are placed and prepared with us for threshing. This indeed is a much quicker way than ours, though less cleanly, for as it is performed in the open air, (Hos 13:3), upon any round level plot of ground, daubed over with cow's dung to prevent as much as possible the earth, sand, or gravel from rising; a great quantity of them all, notwithstanding this precaution, must unavoidably be taken up with the grain, at the same time that the straw, which is their chief and only fodder, is hereby shattered to pieces; a circumstance very pertinently alluded to in 2Kgs 13:7, where the king of Syria is said to have made the Israelites like the dust by threshing - Travels, p. 138. While the oxen were at work some muzzled their mouths to hinder them from eating the corn, which Moses here forbids, instructing the people by this symbolical precept to be kind to their servants and laborers, but especially to those who ministered to them in holy things; so St. Paul applies it 1Cor 9:9, etc.; 1Tim 5:18. Le Clerc considers the injunction as wholly symbolical; and perhaps in this view it was intended to confirm the laws enjoined in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the former chapter. See Dodd and Shaw. In Bengal, where the same mode of treading cut the corn is used, some muzzle the ox, and others do not, according to the disposition of the farmer - Ward.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
This is a charge to husbandmen. It teaches us to make much of the animals that serve us. But we must learn, not only to be just, but kind to all who are employed for the good of our better part, our souls, 1Co 9:9.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Deuteronomy 25:4 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

לֹא\־lo'-notH3808
תַחְסֹ֥םtach.Somyou will muzzleH2629
שׁ֖וֹרShoran oxH7794
בְּדִישֽׁוֹ\׃\ \סbe.di.Showhen threshes itH1758

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Deuteronomy 25:4

  • 1 Timothy 5:17-18

    Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

  • 1 Corinthians 9:9-10

    For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

  • Proverbs 12:10

    A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

  • Hosea 10:11

    And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.

  • Isaiah 28:27

    For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
shalt not.In Judea, as well as in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, they made use of beeves to tread out the corn; and the same mode of threshing still obtains in Arabia, Barbary, and other eastern countries, to the present day. The sheaves lie open and expanded on the threshing floors, and the cattle continually move round them, and thus tread out the grain. The natives of Aleppo still religiously observe the ancient humane practice, inculcated by this law, of permitting the oxen to remain unmuzzled when treading out the corn.
muzzle.
Pr 12:10; 1Co 9:9,10; 1Ti 5:17,18
treadeth out. Heb. thresheth.
Isa 28:27; Ho 10:11

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Deuteronomy 25:3

    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.

  • Deuteronomy 25:4

    Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

  • Deuteronomy 25:5

    If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.

Read all of Deuteronomy 25

Deuteronomy 25:4 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		No pondrás bozal al buey cuando trillare.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Tu n’emmuselleras pas le bœuf, pendant qu’il foule le grain.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Du sollst dem Ochsen das Maul nicht verbinden, wenn er drischt.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Non ligabis os bovis terentis in area fruges tuas.