Keil & Delitzsch , Commentary on the Old Testament, , [0], Deut 25:3, "Forty shall ye beat him, and not add," i.e., at most forty stripes, and
not more. The strokes were administered with a stick upon the back (Pro
10:13; Pro 19:29; Pro 26:3, etc.). This was the Egyptian mode of
whipping, as we may see depicted upon the monuments, when the culprits
lie flat upon the ground, and being held fast by the hands and feet,
receive their strokes in the presence of the judge (vid., Wilkinson, ii.
p. 11, and Rosellini, ii. 3, p. 274, 78). The number forty was not to be
exceeded, because a larger number of strokes with a stick would not only
endanger health and life, but disgrace the man: "that thy brother do not
become contemptible in thine eyes." If he had deserved a severer
punishment, he was to be executed. In Turkey the punishments inflicted
are much more severe, viz., from fifty to a hundred lashes with a whip;
and they are at the same time inhuman (see v. Tornauw, Moslem. Recht, p.
234). The number, forty, was probably chosen with reference to its
symbolical significance, which it had derived from Gen_7:12 onwards, as
the full measure of judgment. The Rabbins fixed the number at forty save
one (vid., 2Co_11:24), from a scrupulous fear of transgressing the
letter of the law, in case a mistake should be made in the counting; yet
they felt no conscientious scruples about using a whip of twisted thongs
instead of a stick (vid., tract. Macc. iii. 12; Buxtorf, Synag. Jud. pp.
522-3; and Lundius, Jüd. Heiligth. p. 472).