1. Few modern story tells the horror of such brutalizing excess as those perpetuated by the colonizing agents of King Leopold of Belgium in the Congo, and immortalized in Joseph Conrad's novel, The Heart of Darkness. For a recent historical retelling, see A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
2. Flogging is often alluded to in the Old Testament (see, e.g., Exo 21:20; Prov 10:13; 17:26; 19:29; 26:3; Isa 50:6) but flogging as authorized by the court is mentioned only here.
3. C. J. H. Wright, Deuteronomy (New International Biblical Commentary; Peabody, MS: Hendricksen, 1996), 265.