< Deuteronomy 25 >
1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come nigh unto a court of justice, and they judge them; and they justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked:
2 Then shall it be, if the guilty man deserve to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to the degree of his fault, by a [certain] number.
3 Forty stripes may he give him, not more; so that he shall not exceed to have him beaten above these with too many stripes, and thy brother be thus rendered vile before thy eyes.
4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he thresheth out the corn.
5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child: then shall the wife of the dead not be married abroad, unto a stranger; her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to himself for wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.
6 And it shall be, that the first-born whom she may bear shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead; so that his name be not blotted out of Israel.
7 And if the man have no desire to take his sister-in-law: then shall his sister-in-law go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform on me the duty of a husband's brother.
8 Then shall the elders of his city call him, and speak unto him; and if he persist, and say, I have no desire to take her:
9 Then shall his sister-in-law come nigh unto him in the presence of the elders, and pull his shoe from off his foot, and spit out before him, and shall commence and say, Thus shall be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.
10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of the barefooted.
11 When men strive together one with the other, and the wife of the one draweth near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:
12 Then shalt thou cut off her hand, thy eye shall not have pity.
13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
14 Thou shalt not have in thy house divers measures, a great and a small.
15 A perfect and just weight shalt thou have, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have; in order that thy days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee;
16 For an abomination of the Lord thy God is every one that doth such things, every one that acteth unrighteously.
17 Remember what 'Amalek did unto thee, by the way, at your coming forth out of Egypt;
18 How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, all that were feeble behind thee, when thou was faint and weary; and he feared not God.
19 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God giveth thee rest from all thy enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of 'Amalek from under the heavens: thou shalt not forget.
