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“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out grain.” Deuteronomy 25.4
It is possible, I believe to derive a third principle of justice from this statute. We’ve already seen that Deuteronomy 25.4 accords certain “rights” to animals at the same time that it validates humankind’s penchant for harnessing creatures to aid them in doing good and glorifying God.
The image in this statute is of an ox munching away at the grain as he pulls the sledge over it to separate the corn from the chaff. This is hard work, and an ox can get hungry with all that pulling. As the ox trudges over the threshed grain he might be inclined to munch a bit here and there. A greedy owner will muzzle his ox so that he cannot eat, thus hastening the ox’s exhaustion while, at the same time, leaving more of the harvest for himself.
Of course, he will feed his ox in due course, but the ox’s job is to work, not eat. The greedy owner will therefore muzzle his ox and, so that it may eat only when he decides. We can believe that, in meager times, such an owner will cut back on what he feeds his oxen, while in times of plenty, he will not be likely to give them much more than what is considered sufficient for subsistence.
Deuteronomy 25.4 teaches that oxen should be allowed freely to eat while they work. And they should expet to have food in their manger as well, as Solomon reminded us (Prov. 14.4). When the harvest is meager, their “take home pay” would perhaps have reflected that. But when the harvest is abundant, they would doubtless grow fat and happy, just like the masters they served.
There appears to be a principle of proportionate benefit embedded in this statute, a kind of “profit-sharing” principle which, it is clear, applies even to the animals that work with and for us.
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