God"s care for animals as His creatures lay behind this law. The Apostle Paul expounded the significance of this command ( 1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18). [source][source][source]
"The purpose clearly was not only to provide for the ox itself but to make the point by a fortiori argument that if a mere animal was worthy of humane treatment, how much more so was a human being created as the image of God." [1][source]
Chapter Summary: Deuteronomy 25
1Punishment must not exceed forty lashes 4The ox is not to be muzzled 5Of raising seed unto a brother 11Of the immodest woman 13Of unjust weights and measures 17The memory of Amalek is to be blotted out
What do the individual words in Deuteronomy 25:4 mean?
NotYou shall muzzlean oxwhile it treads out [the grain]-