< Deuteronomy 25 >
1 If there is an argument between men and they go to law with one another, let the judges give their decision for the upright, and against the wrongdoer.
If there be a controversy between men, and they call upon the judges: they shall give the prize of justice to him whom they perceive to be just: and him whom they find to be wicked, they shall condemn of wickedness.
2 And if the wrongdoer is to undergo punishment by whipping, the judge will give orders for him to go down on his face and be whipped before him, the number of the blows being in relation to his crime.
And if they see that the offender be worthy of stripes: they shall lay him down, and shall cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be:
3 He may be given forty blows, not more; for if more are given, your brother may be shamed before you.
Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother depart shamefully torn before thy eyes.
4 Do not keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it.
Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor.
5 If brothers are living together and one of them, at his death, has no son, the wife of the dead man is not to be married outside the family to another man: let her husband's brother go in to her and make her his wife, doing as it is right for a brother-in-law to do.
When brethren dwell together, and one of them dieth without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry to another: but his brother shall take her, and raise up seed for his brother:
6 Then the first male child she has will take the rights of the brother who is dead, so that his name may not come to an end in Israel.
And the first son he shall have of her he shall call by his name, that his name be not abolished out of Israel.
7 But if the man says he will not take his brother's wife, then let the wife go to the responsible men of the town, and say, My husband's brother will not keep his brother's name living in Israel; he will not do what it is right for a husband's brother to do.
But if he will not take his brother’s wife, who by law belongeth to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and call upon the ancients, and say: My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up his brother’s name in Israel: and will not take me to wife.
8 Then the responsible men of the town will send for the man, and have talk with him: and if he still says, I will not take her;
And they shall cause him to be sent for forthwith, and shall ask him. If he answer: I will not take her to wife:
9 Then his brother's wife is to come to him, before the responsible men of the town, and take his shoe off his foot, and put shame on him, and say, So let it be done to the man who will not take care of his brother's name.
The woman shall come to him before the ancients, and shall take off his shoe from his foot, and spit in his face, and say: So shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother’s house:
10 And his family will be named in Israel, The house of him whose shoe has been taken off.
And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of the unshod.
11 If two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them, coming to the help of her husband, takes the other by the private parts;
If two men have words together, and one begin to fight against the other, and the other’s wife willing to deliver her husband out of the hand of the stronger, shall put forth her hand, and take him by the secrets,
12 Her hand is to be cut off; have no pity on her.
Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her regard.
13 Do not have in your bag different weights, a great and a small;
Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a less:
14 Or in your house different measures, a great and a small.
Neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less.
15 But have a true weight and a true measure: so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
Thou shalt have a just and a true weight, and thy bushel shall be equal and true: that thou mayest live a long time upon the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee.
16 For all who do such things, and all whose ways are not upright, are disgusting to the Lord your God.
For the Lord thy God abhorreth him that doth these things, and he hateth all injustice.
17 Keep in mind what Amalek did to you on your way from Egypt;
Remember what Amalec did to thee in the way when thou camest out of Egypt:
18 How, meeting you on the way, he made an attack on you when you were tired and without strength, cutting off all the feeble ones at the end of your line; and the fear of God was not in him.
How he met thee: and slew the hindmost of the army, who sat down, being weary, when thou wast spent with hunger and labour, and he feared not God.
19 So when the Lord your God has given you rest from all who are against you on every side, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, see to it that the memory of Amalek is cut off from the earth; keep this in mind.
Therefore when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest, and shall have subdued all the nations round about in the land which he hath promised thee: thou shalt blot out his name from under heaven. See thou forget it not.