Stripes must not exceed forty. The ox is not to be muzzled. Of raising seed to the brother. Of the immodest woman. Of unjust weight. Of destroying the Amalecites.

¹ “If there is a case between persons, and they apply to the judges, they shall give the palm of justice to the one whom they perceive to be just, and they shall condemn of impiety the one who is impious.

² But if they see that the one who has sinned is worthy of stripes, they shall prostrate him and cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin, so shall the measure of the stripes be.

³ Even so, these shall not exceed the number of forty. Otherwise, your brother may depart, having been wounded shamefully before your eyes.

⁴ You shall not muzzle an ox as it is treading out your crops in the field.¹

1. 25:4Not muzzle, etc: St. Paul understands this of the spiritual labourer in the church of God, who is not to be denied his maintenance. 1 Cor. 9.8, 9, 10.(Challoner)

⁵ When brothers are living together, and one of them dies without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry another. Instead, his brother shall take her, and he shall raise up offspring for his brother.

⁶ And the first son from her, he shall call by his brother’s name, so that his name will not be abolished from Israel.

⁷ But if he is not willing to take his brother’s wife, who by law must go to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and she shall call upon those greater by birth, and she shall say: ‘The brother of my husband is not willing to raise up his brother’s name in Israel; nor will he join with me.’

⁸ And immediately, they shall summon him to be sent, and they shall question him. If he responds, ‘I am not willing to accept her as a wife,’

⁹ then the woman shall approach him in the sight of the elders, and she shall remove his shoe from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall say: ‘So shall it be done to the man who was not willing to build up his brother’s house.’

¹⁰ And his name shall be called in Israel: The House of the Unshod.

¹¹ If two men have a conflict between themselves, and one begins to do violence to the other, and if the other’s wife, wanting to rescue her husband from the hand of the stronger one, extends her hand and grasps him by his private parts,

¹² then you shall cut off her hand. Neither shall you weep over her with any mercy.

¹³ You shall not have differing weights, greater and lesser, in your bag.

¹⁴ Neither shall there be in your house a greater and a lesser measure.

¹⁵ You shall have a just and a true weight, and your measure shall be equal and true, so that you may live for a long time upon the land, which the Lord your God will give to you.

¹⁶ For the Lord your God abominates him who does these things, and he loathes all injustice.

¹⁷ Remember what Amalek did to you, along the way, when you were departing from Egypt:¹

1. 25:17Amalec: This order for destroying the Amalecites, in the mystical sense, shows how hateful they are to God, and what punishments they are to look for from his justice, who attack and discourage his servants when they are but just come out, as it were, of the Egypt of this wicked world and being yet weak and fainthearted, are but beginning their journey to the land of promise.(Challoner)

¹⁸ how he met you and cut down the stragglers of the troops, who were sitting down, exhausted, when you were consumed by hunger and hardship, and how he did not fear God.

¹⁹ Therefore, when the Lord your God will give you rest, and you will have subdued all the surrounding nations, in the land which he has promised to you, you shall delete his name from under heaven. Take care not to forget this.”