Deuteronomy 25:1-9 ▼

1 |When there is a conflict between individuals, let them come to court to judge the case, decide who is innocent, and condemn the guilty person.

2 If the guilty person deserves a beating, the judge will make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes fit for his crime.

3 But he must not be beaten more than 40 lashes, because if he receives more than 40 lashes, your brother will be humiliated in your eyes.

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

5 |When two brothers are living together and one of them dies without leaving a son, his widow must not be married outside the family to a foreigner. Instead, the brother-in-law must go to her, take her as his wife, and by doing so perform the duty of a brother-in-law.

6 The firstborn whom she will bear will continue the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be erased from Israel.

7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother's widow, then she must go to the elders at the city gate and declare, 'My husband's brother refuses to perform the duty of a brother-in-law in order to preserve the name of his brother in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law.'

8 Then the elders of the city are to summon him and speak with him. If he insists on saying, 'I don't want to marry her,'

9 then she is to approach her brother-in-law in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and say in response, 'May this be done to the man who does not preserve the lineage of his brother.'