1 “If there is a case between persons, and they apply to the judges, they shall give the palm of justice to the one whom they perceive to be just, and they shall condemn of impiety the one who is impious. 2 But if they see that the one who has sinned is worthy of stripes, they shall prostrate him and cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin, so shall the measure of the stripes be. 3 Even so, these shall not exceed the number of forty. Otherwise, your brother may depart, having been wounded shamefully before your eyes. 4 You shall not muzzle an ox as it is treading out your crops in the field. 5 When brothers are living together, and one of them dies without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry another. Instead, his brother shall take her, and he shall raise up offspring for his brother. 6 And the first son from her, he shall call by his brother’s name, so that his name will not be abolished from Israel. 7 But if he is not willing to take his brother’s wife, who by law must go to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and she shall call upon those greater by birth, and she shall say: ‘The brother of my husband is not willing to raise up his brother’s name in Israel; nor will he join with me.’ 8 And immediately, they shall summon him to be sent, and they shall question him. If he responds, ‘I am not willing to accept her as a wife,’ 9 then the woman shall approach him in the sight of the elders, and she shall remove his shoe from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall say: ‘So shall it be done to the man who was not willing to build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And his name shall be called in Israel: The House of the Unshod. 11 If two men have a conflict between themselves, and one begins to do violence to the other, and if the other’s wife, wanting to rescue her husband from the hand of the stronger one, extends her hand and grasps him by his private parts, 12 then you shall cut off her hand. Neither shall you weep over her with any mercy. 13 You shall not have differing weights, greater and lesser, in your bag. 14 Neither shall there be in your house a greater and a lesser measure. 15 You shall have a just and a true weight, and your measure shall be equal and true, so that you may live for a long time upon the land, which the Lord your God will give to you. 16 For the Lord your God abominates him who does these things, and he loathes all injustice. 17 Remember what Amalek did to you, along the way, when you were departing from Egypt: 18 how he met you and cut down the stragglers of the troops, who were sitting down, exhausted, when you were consumed by hunger and hardship, and how he did not fear God. 19 Therefore, when the Lord your God will give you rest, and you will have subdued all the surrounding nations, in the land which he has promised to you, you shall delete his name from under heaven. Take care not to forget this.”
Deuteronomy · Catholic Public Domain Version
Deuteronomy 25 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
Cross references (16)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Proverbs 17:15; Deuteronomy 1:16–17; Deuteronomy 17:8–9; Deuteronomy 19:17–19; Malachi 3:18
- 2 Luke 12:47–48; 1 Peter 2:20; Matthew 10:17; 1 Peter 2:24; Acts 5:40
- 3 Job 18:3; James 2:2–3; 2 Corinthians 11:24–25; Luke 15:30; Luke 18:9–12
- 4 1 Timothy 5:17–18; 1 Corinthians 9:9–10; Proverbs 12:10; Hosea 10:11; Isaiah 28:27
- 5 Luke 20:28; Matthew 22:24; Mark 12:19; Genesis 38:8–9; Ruth 1:12–13
- 6 Deuteronomy 21:19; Psalm 109:13; Psalm 9:5; Genesis 28:8–10; Ruth 4:1–7
- 7 Ruth 4:1–2; Ruth 4:5–6
- 8 Ruth 4:6
- 9 Ruth 4:7–8; Numbers 12:14; Isaiah 20:2; Isaiah 50:6; Mark 10:34
- 12 Deuteronomy 19:13; Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 19:21
- 13 Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 16:11; Leviticus 19:35–37; Amos 8:5; Ezekiel 45:10–11
- 15 Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 5:33; Deuteronomy 11:9; Ephesians 6:3
- 16 Proverbs 11:1; Revelation 21:27; 1 Thessalonians 4:6; Deuteronomy 22:5; Deuteronomy 18:12
- 17 Exodus 17:8–16; Numbers 25:17–18; Numbers 24:20
- 18 Psalm 36:1; Romans 3:18; Nehemiah 5:15; Proverbs 16:6; Nehemiah 5:9
- 19 Exodus 17:14; Deuteronomy 9:14; 1 Samuel 14:48; Exodus 17:16; Psalm 83:7–17
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And even if we were born from the brother of Him that is dead, yet are we named after the name of Him who is dead. We were begotten by the one, but begotten to the other.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
… illustrations from common things, and had said, "Who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk thereof?" then he brings in the Scriptures also, saying, "It is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn;" and again, "Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel should …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
One ought also to observe this, that the law was that when a man died without seed, this man's brother should take to wife the wife of the dead man and raise up seed to his brother.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 9 (1899)
The Apostle hath said, that of the preachers of the Gospel must be understood that which hath been written, "Of the ox treading out corn the mouth thou shalt not muzzle. Doth God care for oxen?" Therefore great are those rams, great the oxen.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
The wife of him that died childless was to be given to his brother. For since death was an incurable ill, and all was contrived for life's sake; He makes a law that the living brother should marry her, and should call the child that is born by the name of the dead, so that his house should not utterly …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)