Lectionary Calendar
Friday, June 6th, 2025
the Seventh Week after Easter
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Deuteronomy 25:12

If she does that, cut off her hand. Don't feel sorry for her.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Torrey's Topical Textbook - Hands, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Punishment;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Wealth;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Archaeology and Biblical Study;   Crimes and Punishments;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Deuteronomy;   Leviticus;  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Commandments, the 613;   Family and Family Life;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
you are to cut off her hand. Do not show pity.
Hebrew Names Version
then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.
King James Version
Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.
Lexham English Bible
then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not take pity.
English Standard Version
then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.
New Century Version
you must cut off her hand. Show her no mercy.
New English Translation
then you must cut off her hand—do not pity her.
Amplified Bible
then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity [for her].
New American Standard Bible
then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Then thou shalt cut off her hande: thine eye shall not spare her.
Legacy Standard Bible
then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.
Contemporary English Version
you must cut off her hand. Don't have any mercy.
Complete Jewish Bible
you are to cut off her hand; show no pity.
Darby Translation
thou shalt cut off her hand; thine eye shall not spare.
George Lamsa Translation
Then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her.
Good News Translation
show her no mercy; cut off her hand.
Literal Translation
then you shall cut off her palm; your eye shall not pity.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
then shalt thou cut of hir hande, and thine eye shal not pitie her.
American Standard Version
then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall have no pity.
Bible in Basic English
Her hand is to be cut off; have no pity on her.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Thou shalt cut of her hande, and let not thyne eye pitie her.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall have no pity.
King James Version (1611)
Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pitie her.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
thou shalt cut off her hand; thine eye shall not spare her.
English Revised Version
then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall have no pity.
Berean Standard Bible
you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
thou schalt kitte awei `the hond of hir, nether thou schalt be bowid on hir bi ony mercy.
Young's Literal Translation
then thou hast cut off her hand, thine eye doth not spare.
Update Bible Version
then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.
Webster's Bible Translation
Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thy eye shall not pity [her].
World English Bible
then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.
New King James Version
then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her.
New Living Translation
you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
New Life Bible
you must cut off her hand. Do not show pity.
New Revised Standard
you shall cut off her hand; show no pity.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
then shalt thou cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her regard.
Revised Standard Version
then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall have no pity.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.

Contextual Overview

5 "If two brothers live together, and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man must not marry a stranger outside the family. Her husband's brother must take her as his wife and have sexual relations with her. He must do the duty of a husband's brother for her. 6 Then the first son she has will be considered the dead man's son in order to keep the dead man's name alive in Israel. 7 If the man does not want to take his brother's wife, she must go to the town meeting place and tell the leaders, ‘My husband's brother refuses to keep his brother's name alive in Israel. He will not do the duty of a husband's brother to me.' 8 Then the leaders of the city must call the man and talk to him. If the man is stubborn and says, ‘I don't want to take her,' 9 then his brother's wife must come to him in front of the leaders. She must take his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. She must say, ‘This is being done to the man who will not give his brother a son!' 10 From then on, the brother's family will be known in Israel as, ‘the family of the man whose sandal was removed.' 11 "Two men might be fighting against each other. One man's wife might come to help her husband, but she must not grab the other man's private parts. 12 If she does that, cut off her hand. Don't feel sorry for her.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Deuteronomy 19:13, Deuteronomy 19:21

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 7:16 - thine eye

Cross-References

Genesis 17:20
"You mentioned Ishmael, and I heard you. I will bless him, and he will have many children. He will be the father of twelve great leaders. His family will become a great nation.
Genesis 21:13
But I will also bless the son of your slave woman. He is your son, so I will make a great nation from his family also."
Genesis 25:10
This is the same cave that Abraham bought from the Hittites. He was buried there with his wife Sarah.
Genesis 25:15
Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.
Psalms 83:6
Their army includes the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Moabites, and Hagar's descendants, the people of Byblos, Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines, and the people of Tyre. <

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then thou shall cut off her hand,.... Which was to be done not by the man that strove with her husband, or by any bystander, but by the civil magistrate or his order. This severity was used to deter women from such an immodest as well as injurious action, who on such an occasion are very passionate and inconsiderate. Our Lord is thought to refer to this law, Matthew 5:30; though the Jewish writers interpret this not of actual cutting off the hand, but of paying a valuable consideration, a price put upon it; so Jarchi; and Aben Ezra compares it with the law of retaliation, "eye for eye", Exodus 21:24; which they commonly understand of paying a price for the both, c. lost and who adds, if she does not redeem her hand (i.e. by a price) it must be cut off:

thine eye shall not pity [her]; on account of the tenderness of her sex, or because of the plausible excuse that might be made for her action, being done hastily and in a passion, and out of affection to her husband; but these considerations were to have no place with the magistrate, who was to order the punishment inflicted, either in the strict literal sense, or by paying a sum of money.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This is the only mutilation prescribed by the Law of Moses, unless we except the retaliation prescribed as a punishment for the infliction on another of bodily injuries Leviticus 24:19-20. The act in question was probably not rare in the times and countries for which the Law of Moses was designed. It is of course to be understood that the act was willful, and that the prescribed punishment would be inflicted according to the sentence of the judges.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile