Study Desk

and the second man hates her, writes her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he dies,

“If a man is discovered kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from you.

“When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect what he offers as security.

You are to pay him his wages each day before the sun sets, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty.

“Fathers are not to be put to death for their children, and children are not to be put to death for their fathers; each person will be put to death for his own sin.

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.

“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.

The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

But if the man doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she is to 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.’

The elders of his city will summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’

then his sister-in-law will go up to him in the sight of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she will declare, ‘This is what is done to a man who will not build up his brother’s house.’

And his family name in Israel will be ‘The house of the man whose sandal was removed.’

“If two men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she puts out her hand and grabs his genitals,

take some of the first of all the land’s produce that you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you and put it in a basket. Then go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to have his name dwell.

Today you have affirmed that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commands, and ordinances, and obey him.

And today the Lord has affirmed that you are his own possession as he promised you, that you are to keep all his commands,

Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and statutes I am giving you today.”

‘The one who dishonors his father or mother is cursed.’

‘The one who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker is cursed.’

‘The one who sleeps with his father’s wife is cursed, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’