Chapter 25
1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto
judgment, and the judges judge them, by justifying the righteous, and condemning
the wicked,
2 then it shall be, if the wicked man deserve to be beaten,
that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face,
according to the measure of his wickedness, by number.
3 Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest,
if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy
brother should be dishonoured before thine eyes.
4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have
no child, the wife of the dead shall not be married abroad unto one not of his
kin; her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife,
and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.
6 And it shall be, that the first-born that she beareth shall
succeed in the name of his brother that is dead, that his name be not blotted
out of Israel.
7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then
his brother's wife shall go up to the gate unto the elders, and say: 'My
husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel; he
will not perform the duty of a husband's brother unto me.'
8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto
him; and if he stand, and say: 'I like not to take her';
9 then shall his brother's wife draw nigh unto him in the
presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his
face; and she shall answer and say: 'So shall it be done unto the man that doth
not build up his brother's house.'
10 And his name shall be called in Israel The house of him
that had his shoe loosed.
11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of
the one draweth near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth
him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets;
12 then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall have no
pity.
13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great
and a small.
14 Thou shalt not have in thy house diverse measures, a great
and a small.
15 A perfect and just weight shalt thou have; a perfect and
just measure shalt thou have; that thy days may be long upon the land which
HaShem thy G-d giveth thee.
16 For all that do such things, even all that do
unrighteously, are an abomination unto HaShem thy G-d.
17 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way as ye came
forth out of Egypt;
18 how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of
thee, all that were enfeebled in thy rear, when thou wast faint and weary; and
he feared not G-d.
19 Therefore it shall be, when HaShem thy G-d hath given thee
rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which HaShem thy G-d giveth
thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget.
Sources: Portions copyright © 1997 by Benyamin Pilant, All Rights Reserved
JPS Electronic Edition, based on the 1917 JPS translation, Copyright © 1998 by Larry Nelson, All Rights Reserved
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