SEV Biblia, Chapter 22:10
No ararás con buey y con asno juntamente.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 22:10
Verse 10. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass] It is generally supposed that mixtures of different sorts in seed, breed, &c., were employed for superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited in this law. It is more likely, however, that there was a physical reason for this; two beasts of a different species cannot associate comfortably together, and on this ground never pull pleasantly either in cart or plough; and every farmer knows that it is of considerable consequence to the comfort of the cattle to put those together that have an affection for each other. This may be very frequently remarked in certain cattle, which, on this account, are termed true yoke-fellows. After all, it is very probable that the general design was to prevent improper alliances in civil and religious life. And to this St. Paul seems evidently to refer, 2 Cor. vi. 14: Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers; which is simply to be understood as prohibiting all intercourse between Christians and idolaters in social, matrimonial, and religious life. And to teach the Jews the propriety of this, a variety of precepts relative to improper and heterogeneous mixtures were interspersed through their law, so that in civil and domestic life they might have them ever before their eyes.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 10. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together , etc.] They might be used separately, but not together; nor was it uncommon in some countries for asses to be employed in ploughing as well as oxen. Pliny f359 makes mention of some fruitful land in Africa, which when it was dry weather could not be ploughed by oxen, but after showers of rain might be ploughed by a mean little ass; so Leo Africanus says, the Africans only use horses and asses in ploughing. The reason why they were not to be put together was either (as some think) lest the law should be broken which forbids the gendering of cattle with a divers kind, ( Leviticus 19:19) but Aben Ezra thinks the reason is, because the strength of an ass is not equal to the strength of an ox; and therefore he supposes this law is made from the mercy and commiseration of God extended to all his creatures; though perhaps the better reason is, because the one was a clean creature, and the other an unclean, and this instance is put for all others; and with which agree the Jewish canons, which run thus, “cattle with cattle, wild beasts with wild beasts, unclean with unclean, clean with clean (i.e. these may be put together); but unclean with clean, and clean with unclean, are forbidden to plough with, to draw with, or to be led together f361 .”
The mystery of this is, that godly and ungodly persons are not to be yoked together in religious fellowship: (see 2 Corinthians 6:14).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 5-12 - God's providence extends itself to the smallest affairs, and his precepts do so, that even in them we may be in the fear of the Lord, a we are under his eye and care. Yet the tendency of these laws, whic seem little, is such, that being found among the things of God's law they are to be accounted great things. If we would prove ourselves to be God's people, we must have respect to his will and to his glory, an not to the vain fashions of the world. Even in putting on our garments as in eating or in drinking, all must be done with a serious regard to preserve our own and others' purity in heart and actions. Our ey should be single, our heart simple, and our behaviour all of a piece.
Original Hebrew
לא 3808 תחרשׁ 2790 בשׁור 7794 ובחמר 2543 יחדו׃ 3162
