25 “If there is a (A)dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, (B)acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. (C)Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

(D)“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage

(E)“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her (F)husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that (G)his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall (H)go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, (I)‘I do not wish to take her,’ then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and (J)pull his sandal off his foot and (K)spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not (L)build up his brother's house.’ 10 And the name of his house[a] shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 25:10 Hebrew its name

25 When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges(A) will decide the case,(B) acquitting(C) the innocent and condemning the guilty.(D) If the guilty person deserves to be beaten,(E) the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves, but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes.(F) If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes.(G)

Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.(H)

If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.(I) The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.(J)

However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife,(K) she shall go to the elders at the town gate(L) and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”(M) Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals,(N) spit in his face(O) and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” 10 That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

Read full chapter