Deuteronomy 25

The Voice

25 Moses: If two people have a dispute and bring it to court, the judges there will decide the case and declare which one is innocent and which one is guilty. ² If the judges decide the guilty party should be punished with a beating, the judge will make him lie down and be beaten in front of the judge with the number of strokes appropriate to the evil offense— ³ but it can never be more than 40. This limit is to prevent excessive beatings, which would be publicly degrading.

⁴ Don’t muzzle the ox while it is treading out your grain.^[a]

⁵ When two brothers are living together, sharing family property that hasn’t been divided, if one of them dies leaving a widow without sons, his widow must not be married to a man outside the family. The brother should marry his sister-in-law and try to have children with her in his brother’s name.^[b]

Moses: ⁶ Her firstborn son will be named after the brother who died, so that the first husband’s name will not disappear from Israel and that son will receive his share of the family inheritance. ⁷ If a man doesn’t want to marry his brother’s widow, she should go to the elders at the city gate and make a formal complaint: “My husband died, and his brother refuses to keep his name alive in Israel. He won’t marry me and give me children!” ⁸ The elders of his city will send for him and try to persuade him. He may resist and say, “I don’t want to marry her!” ⁹ In that case, the widow will come up to him, with the elders looking on, and pull one of his sandals off his foot, spit in his face, and then say, “If a man won’t make sure his brother’s family line continues, he deserves this kind of disgrace for not continuing his brother’s house!” ¹⁰ From then on, throughout Israel, his family will be known as “the house with the missing sandal,” and they’ll all be disgraced.

¹¹ If two Israelites are fighting, and one man’s wife comes to help her husband because he’s getting beaten, if she grabs the other man by the genitals, she has disrespected his source of procreative power. ¹² Cut her hand off; don’t show any pity!

¹³ Don’t keep two different weighing stones in your bag, a heavy one for when you want to weigh out full value and a light one for when you want to try to cheat someone. ¹⁴ Don’t keep two different measuring containers in your house, a large one for when you want to measure out full value and a small one for when you want to try to cheat someone. ¹⁵ Your weighing stone must be a full and fair weight, and your measuring container must be a full and fair size. That way you will live a long time on the ground the Eternal your God is giving to you, ¹⁶ because the Eternal your God is horrified by anyone who is so unjust as to cheat other people in weights or measures.

¹⁷ Remember what the Amalekites did to you as you were coming out of Egypt? ¹⁸ They found you on the road when you were all worn out, and they attacked those who had fallen behind and were isolated and defenseless. They showed no fear of God. ¹⁹ When you’re in a position to punish them for this, when all of your other enemies are defeated and you’re living peacefully in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you to live in, then wipe out every trace of the Amalekites under the sky. Don’t forget!