Deuteronomy 25: Beatings, the brother-in-law's duty, honest weights, and Amalek

In plain English: If there is a dispute between men, and they go to court and the judges decide the case, they are to declare the innocent man in the right and the guilty man in the wrong.

In plain English: If the guilty man deserves to be beaten (literally: is a son of striking), the judge is to make him lie down and have him beaten in his presence, with the number of blows his wrong deserves.

In plain English: He may give him up to forty blows, but no more. If he gave him more blows than that, your brother would be shamed (literally: made light of) in your eyes.

Good to know: In 2 Corinthians 11:24 Paul says that five times he "received forty stripes minus one from the Jews". The text here sets forty as the limit.

In plain English: You are not to muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

Good to know: This verse is quoted twice in the New Testament: in 1 Corinthians 9:9, where Paul goes on to ask, "Is it for the oxen that God cares?", and in 1 Timothy 5:18, next to "The laborer is worthy of his wages".

In plain English: If brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the dead man's wife is not to marry outside the family, to a stranger. Her husband's brother is to go in to her, take her as his wife, and do the duty of a husband's brother for her.

The Hebrew words: "Husband's brother" is yabam, which the dictionary gives as "a brother-in-law", and "perform the duty of a husband's brother" is the word made from it, which the dictionary gives as "to marry a (deceased) brother's widow". Yabam is only in this passage (verses 5 and 7). The duty word is also in Genesis 38:8, where Judah tells Onan to do it for Tamar.

Good to know: In Matthew 22:24, Mark 12:19 and Luke 20:28 Sadducees put a question to Jesus built on this law. In Ruth 4:10 Boaz marries Ruth "to raise up the name of the dead", using other words. Readers differ on how far the book of Ruth follows this law.

In plain English: The first son she bears is to carry on (literally: stand on) the name of his dead brother, so that his name is not wiped out of Israel.

In plain English: But if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife is to go up to the elders at the gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to keep his brother's name alive in Israel. He will not do the duty of a husband's brother for me."

In plain English: Then the elders of his city are to call him and speak to him. If he stands firm and says, "I do not want to take her,"

In plain English: then his brother's wife is to come up to him in front of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face (or: spit before him). She is to answer and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's house."

The Hebrew words: "In his face" uses panim, "face". The same Hebrew word is also the usual way of saying "before" (literally: to the face of).

What changes: Read as "in his face", she spits on him. Read as "before him", she spits on the ground in front of him. The Hebrew allows both.

Good to know: Ruth 4:7 to 8 also tells of a man taking off his sandal, there as the custom for settling a matter of redeeming. In Ruth the man takes off his own sandal, and there is no spitting.

In plain English: His name is to be called in Israel "The house of the man whose sandal was pulled off."

In plain English: When two men are fighting each other, and the wife of one of them comes near to rescue her husband from the man who is striking him, and she reaches out her hand and grabs the other man by his private parts,

The Hebrew word: "Private parts" is mevushim, found only in this verse. The dictionary gives it as "the (male) pudenda": a man's private parts.

In plain English: then you are to cut off her hand (literally: her palm). You are not to show pity (literally: your eye is not to pity).

The Hebrew word: "Hand" in this verse is kaph, which the dictionary gives as "the hollow hand or palm". In verse 11 "hand" is the everyday word yad. The other 5 verses of Deuteronomy that use kaph all speak of the sole of the foot, as in 2:5.

Good to know: The text gives the law plainly and says not to pity. Readers differ on how it was to be carried out, and on how to read it now.

In plain English: You are not to have two kinds of weights in your bag (literally: a stone and a stone), one heavy and one light.

Good to know: Leviticus 19:35 to 36 also commands just weights and measures, and Proverbs 11:1 says "A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh".

In plain English: You are not to have two kinds of measures in your house (literally: an ephah and an ephah), one large and one small.

In plain English: You are to have a full and honest weight, and a full and honest measure, so that you may live long in the land Yahweh your God is giving you.

In plain English: For everyone who does such things, everyone who acts dishonestly, is detestable (this Bible: an abomination) to Yahweh your God.

In plain English: Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt:

Good to know: Amalek's attack is told in Exodus 17:8 to 16. Exodus does not mention the attack on those at the back. In Exodus 17:14 Yahweh says he will blot out the memory of Amalek; here Moses tells Israel to do it (verse 19). 1 Samuel 15:2 to 3 comes back to this.

In plain English: how he met you on the way and attacked those at the back, all the weak ones behind you, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God.

In plain English: So when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. Do not forget.