Deuteronomy 25-26

Common English Bible

Corporal punishment

25 Now two people have a disagreement and they enter into litigation and their case is decided, with the judges declaring one person legally right and the other legally liable. ² If the guilty party is to be beaten, the presiding judge will have that person lie down and be punished in his presence—the number of blows in measure with the guilt determined. ³ Give no more than forty blows. If more than that is given, your fellow Israelite would be completely disgraced in your eyes.

Working oxen

⁴ Don’t muzzle an ox while it is threshing grain.

The brother-in-law’s duty

⁵ If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not go outside the family and marry a stranger. Instead, her brother-in-law should go to her and take her as his wife. He will then consummate the marriage according to the brother-in-law’s duty. ⁶ The brother-in-law will name the oldest male son that she bears after his dead brother so that his brother’s legacy will not be forgotten in Israel. ⁷ If the brother does not want to marry his sister-in-law, she can go to the elders at the city gate, informing them: “My brother-in-law refuses to continue his brother’s legacy in Israel. He’s not willing to perform the brother-in-law’s duty with me.” ⁸ The city’s elders will summon him and talk to him about this. If he doesn’t budge, insisting, “I don’t want to marry her,” ⁹ then the sister-in-law will approach him while the elders watch. She will pull the sandal off his foot and spit in his face. Then she will exclaim: “That’s what’s done to any man who won’t build up his own brother’s family!” ¹⁰ Subsequently, that man’s family will be known throughout Israel as “the house of the removed sandal.”

Improper touching

¹¹ If two men are fighting with each other—a man and his fellow Israelite—and the wife of one of them gets into the fight, trying to save her husband from his attacker and does so by reaching out and grabbing his genitals, ¹² you must cut off her hand. Show no mercy.

Honest business practices

¹³ Don’t have two different types of money weights in your bag, a heavy one and a light one. ¹⁴ Don’t have two different types of ephahs in your house, a large one and a small one. ¹⁵ Instead, you must have only one weight, complete and correct, and only one ephah, also complete and correct, so that your life might be long in the fertile land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶ What’s more, all who do such things, all who do business dishonestly, are detestable to the Lord your God. ¹⁷ Remember, after all, what Amalek did to you on your departure from Egypt: ¹⁸ how he met up with you on the way, striking from behind those who were lagging back because you were weak and tired, and because he didn’t fear God. ¹⁹ So once the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies that surround you in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you must wipe out Amalek’s memory from under the heavens. Don’t forget this!

The ceremony upon entering the land

26 Once you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and are settled there, ² take some of the early produce of the fertile ground that you have harvested from the land the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket. Then go to the location the Lord your God selects for his name to reside. ³ Go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him: “I am declaring right now before the Lord my^[a] God that I have indeed arrived in the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.”

⁴ The priest will then take the basket from you and place it before the Lord your God’s altar. ⁵ Then you should solemnly state before the Lord your God:

“My father was a starving Aramean. He went down to Egypt, living as an immigrant there with few family members, but that is where he became a great nation, mighty and numerous. ⁶ The Egyptians treated us terribly, oppressing us and forcing hard labor on us. ⁷ So we cried out for help to the Lord, our ancestors’ God. The Lord heard our call. God saw our misery, our trouble, and our oppression. ⁸ The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with awesome power, and with signs and wonders. ⁹ He brought us to this place and gave us this land—a land full of milk and honey. ¹⁰ So now I am bringing the early produce of the fertile ground that you, Lord, have given me.”

Set the produce before the Lord your God, bowing down before the Lord your God. ¹¹ Then celebrate all the good things the Lord your God has done for you and your family—each one of you along with the Levites and the immigrants who are among you.

¹² When you have finished paying the entire tenth part of your produce on the third year—that is the year for paying the tenth-part—you will give it to the Levites, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows so they can eat in your cities until they are full. ¹³ Then announce before the Lord your God: “I have removed the holy portion from my^[b] house, and I have given it to the Levites, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows—in full compliance with your entire commandment that you commanded me. I haven’t broken your commandments. I haven’t forgotten one! ¹⁴ I haven’t eaten from the holy portion while mourning, nor did I remove it while I was polluted, nor have I dedicated any of it to the dead. I’ve obeyed the Lord my God’s voice. I’ve done everything just as you commanded me. ¹⁵ Please look down from your holy home, from heaven itself, and bless your people Israel and the fertile land that you have given us—a land full of milk and honey—just like you promised our ancestors.”

Conclusion to the regulations and case laws

¹⁶ This very moment the Lord your God is commanding you to keep these regulations and case laws. So keep them and do them with all your mind and with your entire being! ¹⁷ Today you have affirmed that the Lord will be your God and that you will walk in his ways and follow his regulations, his commandments, and his case laws, and that you will obey his voice. ¹⁸ Today the Lord has gotten your agreement^[c] that you will be his treasured people, just like he promised—by keeping his commandments— ¹⁹ in order to set you high above all the other nations that he made in praise, fame, and honor; and so that you are a people holy to the Lord your God, just as he said you would be.