Deuteronomy 25
Beating someone who has done wrong
1Moses said: ‘When people argue and they go to court, the judge will say who is guilty and who is innocent. 2If the judge says a person is guilty, then they must beat him. The person must lie down and the judge must see that they beat him. The judge must say how many times they must beat him for the wrong that he has done. 3They may beat a person only 40 times, no more, because if they beat him more than 40 times, they will humiliate him and they must not do that because he is also an Israelite.’
An ox on the threshing-floor
4‘You may not muzzle an ox while he is walking on the wheat and threshing it.’
A son for the brother who has died
5‘If brothers live in the same house and one of them dies before his wife has had a son, then his widow must marry someone in that family. The husband's brother must marry her and become her husband. 6The first son that she has must get the name of the brother who died so that the Israelites will remember his name. 7If his brother does not want to marry her, then she must go to the leaders at the gate of the town and she must tell them: “My brother-in-law does not want the Israelites to remember the name of his brother. He does not want to marry me.”
8Then the elders of the town must call the brother-in-law of the woman and they must talk to him. If he says: “I do not want to marry her,” 9then his brother's wife must come to him in front of the leaders and she must take off his sandal from his foot and she must spit in his face and say: “This is what people must do to a man who does not want to help his brother have descendants.”
10All the Israelites will say this man's family is “the family of the man who has lost his sandal.” ’
A woman who helps her husband
11‘If 2 men are fighting and one man's wife comes to help her husband against the other man who is beating her husband, she may not grab the other man's genitals. 12If she does that, they must cut off her hand and not feel sorry for her.’
Weights and measures
13-14‘Do not try to cheat people when you weigh or measure something. You may not have 2 sets of weights or measures, one to get more when you are buying, and the other to give less when you are selling. 15If you want to live in the land that the Lord your God gives you for many years, you must use weights and measures that are right and honest. 16Because the Lord hates it when people cheat and are not honest.’
The Amalekites
17‘You must remember what the Amalekite people did to you when you came out of Egypt. 18They came from behind and attacked you when you were weak and tired. They attacked the people who could not walk fast. The Amalekites did not have any respect for God. 19The Lord your God will help you defeat all your enemies in the land that He gives to belong to you. You must kill all the Amalekites, and no one on earth must remember them. Do not forget to do it.’
English Bible for the Deaf © Bible Society of South Africa 2019. Used with permission. All rights reserved.