¹ “When a legal dispute ⌞takes place⌟¹ between men and they come near to the court, and the judges judge with respect to them, then they shall declare the righteous to be in the right and they shall condemn the wicked,

1. Literally “shall be”

² then it will happen if the guilty one ⌞deserves beating⌟,¹ then the judge shall make him lie, and he shall beat him ⌞before him⌟,² ⌞according to⌟³ ⌞the prescribed number of lashes proportionate to the offense⌟.⁴

1. Literally “is a son of beating”
2. Literally “to the face of him”
3. Literally “as”
4. Literally “as is sufficient/necessary, with respect to number, for his wickedness/wicked behavior”

³ He may beat him with forty lashes, and he shall not do more than these, so that he will not beat more in addition to these many blows,¹ and your countryman² would be³ degraded before your eyes.

1. Hebrew “blow”
2. Or “brother”
3. Hebrew “is”

⁴ “You shall not muzzle an ox ⌞when he is threshing⌟.¹

1. Literally “at his threshing”

⁵ “When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not become the wife of a ⌞man of another family⌟;¹ her brother-in-law ⌞shall have sex with her⌟,² and he shall take her ⌞to himself⌟³ as a wife, and he shall perform his duty as a brother-in-law with respect to her.

1. Others: “strange man,” “man outside the family” (NEB)
2. Literally “shall go to her”
3. Literally “to/for him”

⁶ And then the firstborn that she bears ⌞shall represent his dead brother⌟,¹ so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.

1. Literally “he shall stand upon the name of his brother the deceased”

⁷ But if the man does not want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister-in-law shall go up to the gate, to the elders, and she shall say, ‘My brother-in-law refused ⌞to perpetuate his brother’s name⌟¹ in Israel, for he is not willing ⌞to marry me⌟.’²

1. Literally “to cause a name to stand for his brother”
2. Literally “to consummate the marriage with the widow of a his brother”

⁸ Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him, and if he persists and says, ‘⌞I do not desire to⌟¹ marry her’

1. Literally “I do not delight in”

⁹ then his sister-in-law shall go near him before the eyes of the elders, and she shall pull off his sandal from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall ⌞declare⌟¹ and she shall say, ‘This is how it is done to the man who does not build the house of his brother.’

1. Literally “respond/answer”

¹⁰ And his ⌞family⌟¹ shall be called in Israel, ‘The house where the sandal was pulled off.’²

1. Literally “name”
2. Or “the house of the man whose sandal was pulled off”

¹¹ “If a man and his brother fight each other and the wife of the one man comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of his attacker and she stretches out her hand and she seizes his genitals,

¹² then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not take pity.

¹³ “There shall not be ⌞for your use⌟¹ in your bag ⌞two kinds of stone weights, a large one and a small one⌟.²

1. Literally “to you”
2. Literally “stone and stone large and small”

¹⁴ There shall not be in your house ⌞for your use⌟¹ ⌞two kinds of measures⌟.²

1. Literally “for you”
2. Literally “ephah and ephah large and small”

¹⁵ Rather a full and honest weight shall be ⌞for your use⌟;¹ there shall be for you a full and honest ⌞measure⌟,² so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you may be long.

1. Literally “for you”
2. Literally “an ephah”

¹⁶ For detestable to¹ Yahweh your God is everyone who is doing such things,² everyone who is acting³ dishonestly.

1. Or “for”
2. Or “are all whoare doing”
3. Or “all whoare acting”

¹⁷ “Remember what Amalek did to you on the journey when¹ you went out from Egypt,

1. Or “at/in”

¹⁸ that he met you on the journey and attacked you, all those lagging behind you and when you were weary and worn out, and he did not fear God.

¹⁹ ⌞And when⌟¹ Yahweh your God gives rest to you from all your enemies from around about you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you as an inheritance to take possession of it, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget!”

1. Literally “And it will happen when”