Deuteronomy 25

Modern

Literal

Fairness and Mercy

¹If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.

¹If there is a dispute between men, and they come to the court, they are to be judged, and the righteous shall be declared righteous, and the wicked condemned.

²If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall have him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime warrants.

²And it shall come to pass, if a son—the wicked man—deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and to be struck in his presence according to his wrongdoing, by number.

³He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.

³Forty times he shall strike him—no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him above these with many blows, and your brother be humiliated in your eyes.

⁴Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.^a

⁴You shall not muzzle an ox in its threshing.

Widowhood and Marriage

⁵When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.^a

⁵If brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son to him, the widow of the dead man shall not be outside to a sojourner. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of her husband's brother.

⁶The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

⁶And it shall come to pass that the firstborn son that she bears will rise up upon the name of the dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel.

⁷But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”

⁷But if the man does not want to take his brother’s widow, let his brother’s widow go up to the gate to the elders and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to raise up for his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my brother-in-law.”

⁸Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,”

⁸And the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he stands firm and says, “I do not want to take her,”

⁹his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”

⁹his brother’s widow shall come to him before the eyes of the elders, and remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face, and answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who will not build up the house of his brother.”

¹⁰And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.”

¹⁰And his name shall be called in Israel, “The house of the removed sandal.”

¹¹If two men are fighting, and the wife of one comes to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals,

¹¹If men fight with each other, a man and his brother, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and she puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals,

¹²you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity.

¹²then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall not pity her.

Standard Weights and Measures

¹³You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.

¹³You shall not have in your bag a stone and a stone, a large and a small.

¹⁴You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.

¹⁴You shall not have in your house an ephah and an ephah, a large and a small.

¹⁵You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁵And you shall have a complete and just stone, and you shall have a complete and just ephah, so that your days may be prolonged in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you.

¹⁶For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

¹⁶For an abomination to YHWH your God is anyone doing these things—anyone doing iniquity.

Revenge on the Amalekites

¹⁷Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt,

¹⁷Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, as you were coming out of Egypt,

¹⁸how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God.

¹⁸how he met you on the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear; and you were tired and weary, and he did not fear God.

¹⁹When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

¹⁹And it will come to pass, when YHWH your God has given rest to you from your enemies all around, in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget.