< Deuteronomy 25 >
1 If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.
When there shall be strife betweene men, and they shall come vnto iudgement, and sentence shall be giuen vpon them, and the righteous shall be iustified, and the wicked condemned,
2 If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants.
Then if so be the wicked be worthy to bee beaten, the iudge shall cause him to lie downe, and to be beaten before his face, according to his trespasse, vnto a certaine nomber.
3 He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.
Fortie stripes shall he cause him to haue and not past, lest if he should exceede and beate him aboue that with many stripes, thy brother should appeare despised in thy sight.
4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
Thou shalt not mousell the oxe that treadeth out the corne.
5 When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
If brethren dwell together, and one of them dye and haue no sonne, the wife of the dead shall not marry without: that is, vnto a stranger, but his kinseman shall goe in vnto her, and take her to wife, and doe the kinsemans office to her.
6 The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
And the first borne which she beareth, shall succeede in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”
And if the man will not take his kinsewoman, then let his kinsewoman goe vp to the gate vnto the Elders, and say, My kinsman refuseth to rayse vp vnto his brother a name in Israel: hee will not doe the office of a kinsman vnto me.
8 Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,”
Then the Elders of his citie shall call him, and commune with him: if he stand and say, I wil not take her,
9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”
Then shall his kinswoman come vnto him in the presence of the Elders, and loose his shooe from his foote, and spit in his face, and answere, and say, So shall it be done vnto that man, that will not buylde vp his brothers house.
10 And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.”
And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him whose shooe is put off.
11 If two men are fighting, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals,
When men striue together, one with another, if the wife of the one come neere, for to ridde her husband out of the handes of him that smiteth him, and put foorth her hand, and take him by his priuities,
12 you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity.
Then thou shalt cut off her hande: thine eye shall not spare her.
13 You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.
Thou shalt not haue in thy bagge two maner of weightes, a great and a small,
14 You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.
Neither shalt thou haue in thine house diuers measures, a great and a small:
15 You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
But thou shalt haue a right and iust weight: a perfite and a iust measure shalt thou haue, that thy dayes may be lengthened in the land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee.
16 For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God.
For all that doe such things, and all that doe vnrighteously, are abomination vnto the Lord thy God.
17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt,
Remember what Amalek did vnto thee by the way, when ye were come out of Egypt:
18 how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God.
How he met thee by ye way, and smote ye hindmost of you, all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast fainted and weary, and he feared not God.
19 When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
Therefore, when the Lord thy God hath giuen thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee for an inheritance to possesse it, then thou shalt put out the remembrance of Amalek from vnder heauen: forget not.