Law of Divorce

1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens 1that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some aindecency in her, and bhe writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,

2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife,

3 and if the latter husband 1turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,

4 then her aformer husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

5 “aWhen a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall bgive happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

Sundry Laws

6 “No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.

7 “aIf a man is 1caught kidnapping any of his 2countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

8 “aBe careful against 1an infection of leprosy, that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.

9 “Remember what the Lord your God did ato Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

10 “aWhen you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge.

11 “You shall remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.

12 “If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.

13 “aWhen the sun goes down you shall surely return the pledge to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and bit will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

14 “aYou shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your 1countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your 2towns.

15 “aYou shall give him his wages on his day 1before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his 2heart on it; so that bhe will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you.

16 “aFathers shall not be put to death 1for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death 1for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 “aYou shall not pervert the justice 1due an alien or 2an orphan, nor btake a widow’s garment in pledge.

18 “But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

19 “aWhen you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be bfor the alien, for the 1orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God cmay bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 “aWhen you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs 1again; it shall be bfor the alien, for the 2orphan, and for the widow.

21 “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not 1go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the 2orphan, and for the widow.

22 “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

Chapter 25

Sundry Laws

1 “aIf there is a dispute between men and they go to 1court, and 2the judges decide their case, band they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

2 then it shall be if the wicked man 1adeserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his 2guilt.

3 “aHe may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not bdegraded in your eyes.

4 “aYou shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

5 “When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. aHer husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.

6 “It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall 1assume the name of his dead brother, so that ahis name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7 “aBut if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’

8 “Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’

9 athen his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and bspit in his face; and she shall 1declare, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’

10 “In Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

11 “If two men, a man and his 1countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals,

12 then you shall cut off her 1hand; 2ayou shall not show pity.

13 “aYou shall not have in your bag 1differing weights, a large and a small.

14 “You shall not have in your house 1differing measures, a large and a small.

15 “You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just 1measure, athat your days may be prolonged in the 2land which the Lord your God gives you.

16 “For aeveryone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God.

17 “aRemember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt,

18 how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he adid not 1fear God.

19 “Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you arest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to 1possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.