1
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 guilty one deserves punishment, the judge will have him prostrate himself before him and lashed as many times as his crime deserves,
3
but not more than forty. If you hit him more than forty times, you will degrade him to something less than human.
4
Don't muzzle an ox while it is threshing.
5
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 that she bears shall be named after her dead husband so his name won't die out in Israel.
7
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
Then the leaders will call for the brother and confront him. If he stands there defiant and says, "I don't want her,"