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Deuteronomy 25
New English Translation

25 If controversy arises between people,[a] they should go to court for judgment. When the judges[b] hear the case, they shall exonerate[c] the innocent but condemn[d] the guilty. 2 Then,[e] if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating,[f] the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves.[g] 3 The judge[h] may sentence him to forty blows,[i] but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite[j] with contempt.

4 You must not muzzle your[k] ox when it is treading grain.

Respect for the Sanctity of Others

5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband’s brother must go to her, marry her,[l] and perform the duty of a brother-in-law.[m] 6 Then[n] the first son[o] she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel. 7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, then she[p] must go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me!” 8 Then the elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, “I don’t want to marry her,” 9 then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face.[q] She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!”[r] 10 His family name will be referred to[s] in Israel as “the family[t] of the one whose sandal was removed.”[u]

11 If two men[v] get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his private parts,[w] 12 then you must cut off her hand—do not pity her.

13 You must not have in your bag different stone weights,[x] a heavy and a light one.[y] 14 You must not have in your house different measuring containers,[z] a large and a small one. 15 You must have an accurate and correct[aa] stone weight and an accurate and correct measuring container, so that your life may be extended in the land the Lord your God is about to give you. 16 For anyone who acts dishonestly in these ways is abhorrent[ab] to the Lord your God.

Treatment of the Amalekites

17 Remember what the Amalekites[ac] did to you on your way from Egypt, 18 how they met you along the way and cut off all your stragglers in the rear of the march when you were exhausted and tired; they were unafraid of God.[ad] 19 So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he[ae] is giving you as an inheritance,[af] you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven[ag]—do not forget![ah]

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “men.”
  2. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the judges) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”
  4. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “declare to be evil”; NIV “condemning the guilty (+ party NAB).”
  5. Deuteronomy 25:2 tn Heb “and it will be.”
  6. Deuteronomy 25:2 tn Heb “if the evil one is a son of smiting.”
  7. Deuteronomy 25:2 tn Heb “according to his wickedness, by number.”
  8. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the judge) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  9. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “Forty blows he may strike him”; however, since the judge is to witness the punishment (v. 2) it is unlikely the judge himself administered it.
  10. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “your brothers” but not limited only to an actual sibling; cf. NAB) “your kinsman”; NRSV, NLT “your neighbor.”
  11. Deuteronomy 25:4 tn Heb “an.” By implication this is one’s own animal.
  12. Deuteronomy 25:5 tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”
  13. Deuteronomy 25:5 sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).
  14. Deuteronomy 25:6 tn Heb “and it will be that.”
  15. Deuteronomy 25:6 tn Heb “the firstborn.” This refers to the oldest male child.
  16. Deuteronomy 25:7 tn Heb “want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister in law.” In the second instance the pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation to avoid redundancy.
  17. Deuteronomy 25:9 sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.
  18. Deuteronomy 25:9 tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”
  19. Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Heb “called,” i.e., “known as.”
  20. Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Heb “house.”
  21. Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Cf. NIV, NCV “The Family of the Unsandaled.”
  22. Deuteronomy 25:11 tn Heb “a man and his brother.”
  23. Deuteronomy 25:11 tn Heb “shameful parts.” Besides the inherent indelicacy of what she has done, the woman has also threatened the progenitive capacity of the injured man. The level of specificity given this term in modern translations varies: “private parts” (NAB, NIV, CEV); “genitals” (NASB, NRSV, TEV); “sex organs” (NCV); “testicles” (NLT).
  24. Deuteronomy 25:13 tn Heb “a stone and a stone.” The repetition of the singular noun here expresses diversity, as the following phrase indicates. See IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
  25. Deuteronomy 25:13 tn Heb “a large and a small,” but since the issue is the weight, “a heavy and a light one” conveys the idea better in English.
  26. Deuteronomy 25:14 tn Heb “an ephah and an ephah.” An ephah refers to a unit of dry measure roughly equivalent to five U.S. gallons (just under 20 liters). On the repetition of the term to indicate diversity, see IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
  27. Deuteronomy 25:15 tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”
  28. Deuteronomy 25:16 tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, toʿevah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
  29. Deuteronomy 25:17 tn Heb “what Amalek” (so NAB, NRSV). Here the individual ancestor, the namesake of the tribe, is cited as representative of the entire tribe at the time Israel was entering Canaan. Consistent with this, singular pronouns are used in v. 18 and the singular name appears again in v. 19. Since readers unfamiliar with the tribe of Amalekites might think this refers to an individual, the term “Amalekites” and the corresponding plural pronouns have been used throughout these verses (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
  30. Deuteronomy 25:18 sn See Exod 17:8-16.
  31. Deuteronomy 25:19 tn Heb “ the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
  32. Deuteronomy 25:19 tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”
  33. Deuteronomy 25:19 tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
  34. Deuteronomy 25:19 sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.
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Deuteronomy 25
Lexham English Bible

25 “When a legal dispute takes place[a] between men and they come near to the court, and the judges judge with respect to them, then they shall declare the righteous to be in the right and they shall condemn the wicked, 2 then it will happen if the guilty one deserves beating,[b] then the judge shall make him lie, and he shall beat him before him,[c] according to[d] the prescribed number of lashes proportionate to the offense.[e] 3 He may beat him with forty lashes, and he shall not do more than these, so that he will not beat more in addition to these many blows,[f] and your countryman[g] would be[h] degraded before your eyes.

4 “You shall not muzzle an ox when he is threshing.[i]

5 “When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not become the wife of a man of another family;[j] her brother-in-law shall have sex with her,[k] and he shall take her to himself[l] as a wife, and he shall perform his duty as a brother-in-law with respect to her. 6 And then the firstborn that she bears shall represent his dead brother,[m] so that his name is not blotted out from Israel. 7 But if the man does not want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister-in-law shall go up to the gate, to the elders, and she shall say, ‘My brother-in-law refused to perpetuate his brother’s name[n] in Israel, for he is not willing to marry me.’[o] 8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him, and if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to[p] marry her’ 9 then his sister-in-law shall go near him before the eyes of the elders, and she shall pull off his sandal from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall declare[q] and she shall say, ‘This is how it is done to the man who does not build the house of his brother.’ 10 And his family[r] shall be called in Israel, ‘The house where the sandal was pulled off.’[s]

11 “If a man and his brother fight each other and the wife of the one man comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of his attacker and she stretches out her hand and she seizes his genitals, 12 then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not take pity.

13 “There shall not be for your use[t] in your bag two kinds of stone weights, a large one and a small one.[u] 14 There shall not be in your house for your use[v] two kinds of measures.[w] 15 Rather a full and honest weight shall be for your use;[x] there shall be for you a full and honest measure,[y] so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you may be long. 16 For detestable to[z] Yahweh your God is everyone who is doing such things,[aa] everyone who is acting[ab] dishonestly.

17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the journey when[ac] you went out from Egypt, 18 that he met you on the journey and attacked you, all those lagging behind you and when you were weary and worn out, and he did not fear God. 19 And when[ad] Yahweh your God gives rest to you from all your enemies from around about you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you as an inheritance to take possession of it, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget!”

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 25:1 Literally “shall be”
  2. Deuteronomy 25:2 Literally “is a son of beating”
  3. Deuteronomy 25:2 Literally “to the face of him”
  4. Deuteronomy 25:2 Literally “as”
  5. Deuteronomy 25:2 Literally “as is sufficient/necessary, with respect to number, for his wickedness/wicked behavior”
  6. Deuteronomy 25:3 Hebrew “blow”
  7. Deuteronomy 25:3 Or “brother”
  8. Deuteronomy 25:3 Hebrew “is”
  9. Deuteronomy 25:4 Literally “at his threshing”
  10. Deuteronomy 25:5 Others: “strange man,” “man outside the family” (NEB)
  11. Deuteronomy 25:5 Literally “shall go to her”
  12. Deuteronomy 25:5 Literally “to/for him”
  13. Deuteronomy 25:6 Literally “he shall stand upon the name of his brother the deceased”
  14. Deuteronomy 25:7 Literally “to cause a name to stand for his brother”
  15. Deuteronomy 25:7 Literally “to consummate the marriage with the widow of a his brother”
  16. Deuteronomy 25:8 Literally “I do not delight in”
  17. Deuteronomy 25:9 Literally “respond/answer”
  18. Deuteronomy 25:10 Literally “name”
  19. Deuteronomy 25:10 Or “the house of the man whose sandal was pulled off”
  20. Deuteronomy 25:13 Literally “to you”
  21. Deuteronomy 25:13 Literally “stone and stone large and small”
  22. Deuteronomy 25:14 Literally “for you”
  23. Deuteronomy 25:14 Literally “ephah and ephah large and small”
  24. Deuteronomy 25:15 Literally “for you”
  25. Deuteronomy 25:15 Literally “an ephah”
  26. Deuteronomy 25:16 Or “for”
  27. Deuteronomy 25:16 Or “are all whoare doing”
  28. Deuteronomy 25:16 Or “all whoare acting”
  29. Deuteronomy 25:17 Or “at/in”
  30. Deuteronomy 25:19 Literally “And it will happen when”
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Deuteronomy 24
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