Fairness and Mercy
1 "If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court, and the judges will hear their case. They will clear the innocent and condemn the guilty.
2
If the guilty party deserves to be flogged, the judge will make him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number [of lashes] appropriate for his crime.
3
He may be flogged with 40 lashes, but no more. Otherwise, if he is flogged with more lashes than these, your brother will be degraded in your sight.
4
"Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain.
Preserving the Family Line
5 "When brothers live on the same property and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside [the family]. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
6
The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
7
But if the man doesn't want to marry his sister-in-law, she must go to the elders at the [city] gate and say, 'My brother-in-law refuses to preserve his brother's name in Israel. He isn't willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.'