Punishment for Gleaners?

You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain... (Dt. 25:4)

     It is interesting that this passage follows immediately after an extended passage about beating on brother with 40 stripes and no more. The fact of the matter is that it comes after Chapter 39, which speaks of someone gleaning from the field, grapes and wheat and such.

     Remember, that there were no chapter divisions originally. Thus, we see the command to allow such gleaning; as well as the constraint against someone going into another's fields and stealing from them.

     It makes perfect sense, then, for chapter 40 to begin with a just punishment for someone who wanted, indeed, steal from a landowner.

     It is, however, interesting to see that the Scripture is not entirely on the land owners side! (This is contrary to what most modern liberals would thank) because the thought that we are left with is that the landowner must allow the poor opportunity to go and feed themselves. Though the rich do indeed have recourse and can indeed punish those who steal from them, it is the poor who have the last thought of God's mind.