Deuteronomy 25

Wycliffe Bible

25 If a cause is betwixt any men, and they ask (the) judges, they shall give the victory of rightwiseness to him, whom they perceive to be just, and they shall condemn him of wickedness, whom they perceive to be wicked.

² And if they see him that hath sinned, (to be) worthy of beatings, they shall cast him (face) down, and they shall make him to be beaten before them; and the manner of the beatings shall be for the measure of the sin (and the number of beatings, or strokes, shall correspond to the measure of the sin),

³ so only that they pass not the number of forty strokes, lest thy brother be rent vilely before thine eyes, and go then away (and then go away).

⁴ Thou shalt not bind the mouth of the ox treading (out) thy fruits in the cornfloor. (Thou shalt not bind the mouth of the ox threshing thy grains on the threshing floor.)

⁵ When brethren dwell together, and one of them is dead without free children, the wife of the dead brother shall not be wedded to another man, but his brother shall take her, and he shall raise (up) the seed of his brother.

⁶ And he shall call her first begotten son by his name, that is, of the dead brother, (so) that his name be not done away from Israel.

⁷ And if he will not take the wife of his brother, which is due to him by law, the woman shall go to the gate of the city; and she shall ask the greater men in birth, and she shall say to them, My husband’s brother will not raise the seed of his brother in Israel, neither he will take me into marriage (and she shall say to the men of great age, that is, the elders, My husband’s brother will not raise up his brother’s descendants in Israel, nor will he take me into marriage).

⁸ And at once they shall make him to be called, and they shall ask him. If he answer, and say, I will not take her to wife (And If he answer, and say, I will not take her for a wife);

⁹ the woman shall go to him before the elder men of Israel, and she shall take his shoe off from his foot (and she shall take off the shoe from his foot), and she shall spit into his face, and she shall say to them, Thus it shall be done to the man, that buildeth not his brother’s house;

¹⁰ and his name shall be called in Israel, The house of the man unshod (The house of the unshod, or the shoeless, man).

¹¹ If two men have strife betwixt themselves, and one beginneth to strive against another, and the wife of the one man will deliver her husband from the hand of the stronger man, and she putteth forth her hand, and holdeth him by his privy members (and taketh hold of him by his private parts),

¹² thou shalt cut off her hand, neither thou shalt be bowed on her with any mercy (nor shalt thou show her any mercy).

¹³ Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a greater to buy with, and a less(er) to sell with,

¹⁴ neither a bushel more and a (bushel) less shall be in thine house. (nor shall a larger bushel and a smaller bushel be in thy house.)

¹⁵ Thou shalt have a just weight and true, and an even bushel and true shall be to thee, that thou live in much time on the land which thy Lord God shall give to thee. (Thou shalt have true and just weights, and there shall be a true and just bushel with thee, so that thou can live a long time on the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee.)

¹⁶ For the Lord shall have him abominable that doeth these things, and he loatheth, either curseth, all unrightfulness.

¹⁷ Have mind what things Amalek did to thee in the way (Remember what the Amalekites did to thee on the way), when thou wentest out of Egypt;

¹⁸ how he came to thee, and killed the last men of thine host, that sat behind weary, when thou were dis-eased with hunger and travail, and he dreaded not God. (how they came to thee, when thou were hungry and tired, and killed the last men of thy army, who were weary and lagged behind, for they had no fear of God.)

¹⁹ Therefore when thy Lord God hath given rest to thee, and hath made subject to thee all (the) nations (round) about, in the land that he promised to thee, thou shalt do away Amalek’s name from under heaven (thou shalt do away the name of the Amalekites from under heaven); be thou ware lest thou forget this.