I was reading John 19 about Jesus and Pilate and followed a reference from a friend to Deut 25.
Deut. 25:3 but he must not give him more than forty lashes. If he is flogged more than that, your brother will be degraded in your eyes.
Punishment under Levitical law was not intended to degrade one person in the eyes of another. Rules like this were in place to deliberately keep someone from being degraded. A notion of punishment without degradation seems so foreign to us. In our law system, the degradation begins with the mug-shot on the web version of the newspaper. then comments and mockery are allowed toward the person. There were 4 people arrested for dealing & making meth yesterday in Evansville. As usual, they looked absolutely miserable. When I saw the article there were already 4 comments under the article about how the people looked.
It seems really foundational to understand that God never desired shame to be carried along with punishment.
