Deuteronomy 25
1 “When there is a strife between men, and they have come near to the judgment, and they have judged, and declared righteous the righteous, and declared wrong 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 then it has come to pass, if the wrongdoer is to be struck, that the judge has caused him to fall down, and [one] has struck him in his presence, according to the sufficiency of his wrongdoing, by number;
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 strikes him forty [times]; he is not adding, lest he is adding to strike him above these many stripes, and your brother be lightly esteemed in your eyes.
Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother depart shamefully torn before thy eyes.
4 You do not muzzle an ox in its threshing.
Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor.
5 When brothers dwell together, and one of them has died and has no son, the wife of the dead is not given to a strange man; her husband’s brother goes in to her, and has taken her to him for a wife, and performs the duty of her husband’s brother;
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 and it has been, the firstborn which she bears rises for the name of his dead brother, and his name is not wiped away out of 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 And if the man does not delight to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife has gone up to the gate, to the elderly, and said, My husband’s brother is refusing to raise up a name for his brother in Israel; he has not been willing to perform the duty of my husband’s brother;
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 and [the] elderly of his city have called for him, and spoken to him, and he has stood and said, I have no desire to 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 has drawn near to him before the eyes of the elderly, and drawn his shoe from off his foot, and spat in his face, and answered and said, Thus it is done to the man who does not build up the house of his brother;
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 name has been called in Israel, The house of him whose shoe is drawn off.
And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of the unshod.
11 When men strive together with one another, and the wife of one has drawn near to deliver her husband out of the hand of his striker, and has put forth her hand, and laid hold on his 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 then you have cut off her hand; your eye does not spare.
Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her regard.
13 You do not have [both] a great stone and a small stone in your bag.
Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a less:
14 You do not have a great ephah and a small ephah in your house.
Neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less.
15 You have a complete and just stone, [and] you have a complete and just ephah, so that they prolong your days on the ground which your God YHWH is giving to 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 anyone doing these things, anyone doing iniquity, [is] an abomination [to] your God YHWH.
For the Lord thy God abhorreth him that doth these things, and he hateth all injustice.
17 Remember that which Amalek has done to you in the way in your going out from Egypt,
Remember what Amalec did to thee in the way when thou camest out of Egypt:
18 that he has met you in the way, and strikes among you all those feeble behind you (when you [were] weary and fatigued), and is not fearing God.
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 And it has been, in your God YHWH giving rest to you from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which your God YHWH is giving to you [for] an inheritance to possess it, you blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens—you do not forget.”
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.
