New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 “Suppose two people take a dispute to court, and the judges declare that one is right and the other is wrong.
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When men have a legal dispute, let them go to court; the judges will decide between them, declaring one innocent and the other guilty.
2 If the person in the wrong is sentenced to be flogged, the judge must command him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate to the crime.
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If the guilty one deserves punishment, the judge will have him prostrate himself before him and lashed as many times as his crime deserves,
3 But never give more than forty lashes; more than forty lashes would publicly humiliate your neighbor.
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but not more than forty. If you hit him more than forty times, you will degrade him to something less than human.
4 “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.
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Don't muzzle an ox while it is threshing.
5 “If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law.
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When brothers are living together and one of them dies without having had a son, the widow of the dead brother shall not marry a stranger from outside the family; her husband's brother is to come to her and marry her and do the brother-in-law's duty by her.
6 The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.
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The first son that she bears shall be named after her dead husband so his name won't die out in Israel.
7 “But if the man refuses to marry his brother’s widow, she must go to the town gate and say to the elders assembled there, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel—he refuses to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law by marrying me.’
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But if the brother doesn't want to marry his sister-in-law, she is to go to the leaders at the city gate and say, "My brother-in-law refuses to keep his brother's name alive in Israel; he won't agree to do the brother-in-law's duty by me."
8 The elders of the town will then summon him and talk with him. If he still refuses and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’
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Then the leaders will call for the brother and confront him. If he stands there defiant and says, "I don't want her,"
9 the widow must walk over to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she must declare, ‘This is what happens to a man who refuses to provide his brother with children.’
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his sister-in-law is to pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and say, "This is what happens to the man who refuses to build up the family of his brother
10 Ever afterward in Israel his family will be referred to as ‘the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off’!
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- his name in Israel will be Family-No-Sandal."
11 “If two Israelite men get into a fight and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man,
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When two men are in a fight and the wife of the one man, trying to rescue her husband, grabs the genitals of the man hitting him,
12 you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
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you are to cut off her hand. Show no pity.
13 “You must use accurate scales when you weigh out merchandise,
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Don't carry around with you two weights, one heavy and the other light,
14 and you must use full and honest measures.
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and don't keep two measures at hand, one large and the other small.
15 Yes, always use honest weights and measures, so that you may enjoy a long life in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
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Use only one weight, a true and honest weight, and one measure, a true and honest measure, so that you will live a long time on the land that God, your God, is giving you.
16 All who cheat with dishonest weights and measures are detestable to the LORD your God.
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Dishonest weights and measures are an abomination to God, your God - all this corruption in business deals!
17 “Never forget what the Amalekites did to you as you came from Egypt.
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Don't forget what Amalek did to you on the road after you left Egypt,
18 They attacked you when you were exhausted and weary, and they struck down those who were straggling behind. They had no fear of God.
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how he attacked you when you were tired, barely able to put one foot in front of another, mercilessly cut off your stragglers, and had no regard for God.
19 Therefore, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies in the land he is giving you as a special possession, you must destroy the Amalekites and erase their memory from under heaven. Never forget this!
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When God, your God, gives you rest from all the enemies that surround you in the inheritance-land God, your God, is giving you to possess, you are to wipe the name of Amalek from off the Earth. Don't forget!
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.