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 is some legal argument between two people, they are to go to court to have the case judged, in order to justify the one who is right and condemn the one who is wrong.
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;
If the person who is guilty is sentenced to be flogged, the judge shall order them to lie down and be flogged before him with the number of lashes the crime deserves.
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.
They are not to receive more than forty lashes. More than that would be to publicly humiliate them.
4 You do not muzzle an ox in its threshing.
Don't muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.
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 two brothers live near to each other and one of them dies without having a son, the widow is not to marry a stranger outside the family. Her husband's brother is to marry her and sleep with her, fulfilling the requirements of a brother-in-law to provide her with children.
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.
The first son she has will be named after the dead brother, so that his name won't be forgotten in 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;
However, if the man refuses to marry his brother's widow, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and tell them, “My husband's brother is refusing to keep his brother's name alive in Israel. He doesn't want to perform the requirements of a brother-in-law for me.”
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.
The town elders are to summon him and talk with him. If he continues to refuse and says, “I don't want to marry her,”
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;
his brother's widow is to confront him in the presence of the elders, pull off his sandal, spit in his face, and announce, “This is what happens to the man who refuses to keep his brother's family name alive.”
10 and his name has been called in Israel, The house of him whose shoe is drawn off.
From then on his family name in Israel will be called “The Family of the Pulled-off Sandal.”
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 are fighting, and one of their wives intervenes to save her husband from being beaten, and she grabs hold of the attacker's genitals,
12 then you have cut off her hand; your eye does not spare.
you are to cut her hand off. Don't show her any mercy.
13 You do not have [both] a great stone and a small stone in your bag.
Don't have two different measuring weights in your bag, one that's heavy and one that's light.
14 You do not have a great ephah and a small ephah in your house.
Don't have two different measuring containers in your house, one that's large and one that's small.
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;
Make sure you always use accurate and true weights and measures. In that way you will have long lives in the country the Lord your God is giving you.
16 for anyone doing these things, anyone doing iniquity, [is] an abomination [to] your God YHWH.
Anyone who doesn't do so and cheats like this offends the Lord your God.
17 Remember that which Amalek has done to you in the way in your going out from Egypt,
Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your way 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.
The came out to confront you when you were tired and weary from your journey, and they attacked all those of you who were lagging behind. They didn't have any respect for 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.”
Once the Lord your God gives you peace after fighting your enemies in the country that he's giving you to take over and own, you are to wipe out even the memory of the Amalekites from the earth. Don't forget!
