| New International Version | NET Bible |
| 1When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. | 1If controversy arises between people, they should go to court for judgment. When the judges hear the case, they shall exonerate the innocent but condemn the guilty. |
| 2If the guilty person deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves, | 2Then, if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. |
| 3but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes. If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes. | 3The judge may sentence him to forty blows, but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite with contempt. |
| 4Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. | 4You must not muzzle your ox when it is treading grain. |
| 5If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. | 5If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man's wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband's brother must go to her, marry her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law. |
| 6The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. | 6Then the first son she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel. |
| 7However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me." | 7But if the man does not want to marry his brother's widow, then she must go to the elders at the town gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to preserve his brother's name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me!" |
| 8Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, "I do not want to marry her," | 8Then the elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, "I don't want to marry her," |
| 9his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line." | 9then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. She will then respond, "Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother's family line!" |
| 10That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled. | 10His family name will be referred to in Israel as "the family of the one whose sandal was removed." |
| 11If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, | 11If two men get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals, |
| 12you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. | 12then you must cut off her hand--do not pity her. |
| 13Do not have two differing weights in your bag--one heavy, one light. | 13You must not have in your bag different stone weights, a heavy and a light one. |
| 14Do not have two differing measures in your house--one large, one small. | 14You must not have in your house different measuring containers, a large and a small one. |
| 15You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. | 15You must have an accurate and correct stone weight and an accurate and correct measuring container, so that your life may be extended in the land the LORD your God is about to give you. |
| 16For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly. | 16For anyone who acts dishonestly in these ways is abhorrent to the LORD your God. |
| 17Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. | 17Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your way from Egypt, |
| 18When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. | 18how they met you along the way and cut off all your stragglers in the rear of the march when you were exhausted and tired; they were unafraid of God. |
| 19When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! | 19So when the LORD your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he is giving you as an inheritance, you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven--do not forget! |
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