The Wilderness Years

"If a man has recently married his wife, he is not to be subject to military service; he is to be free of external obligations and left at home for one year to make his new wife happy.

"No one may take a mill or even an upper millstone as collateral for a loan, because that would be taking as collateral the debtor's very means of sustenance.

"If a man kidnaps any of his brothers, fellow members of the community of Isra'el, and makes him his slave or sells him, that kidnapper must die; in this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you.

"When there is an outbreak of tzara'at, be careful to observe and do just what the cohanim, who are L'vi'im, teach you. Take care to do as I ordered them.

Remember what ADONAI your God did to Miryam on the road after you left Egypt.

"When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you are not to enter his house to take his collateral.

You must stand outside, and the borrower will bring the collateral outside to you.

If he is poor, you are not to go to bed with what he gave as collateral in your possession;

rather, you must restore the pledged item at sunset; then he will go to sleep wearing his garment and bless you. This will be an upright deed of yours before ADONAI your God.

"You are not to exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether one of your brothers or a foreigner living in your land in your town.

You are to pay him his wages the day he earns them, before sunset; for he is poor and looks forward to being paid. Otherwise he will cry out against you to ADONAI, and it will be your sin.

"Fathers are not to be executed for the children, nor are children to be executed for the fathers; every person will be executed for his own sin.

"You are not to deprive the foreigner or the orphan of the justice which is his due, and you are not to take a widow's clothing as collateral for a loan.

Rather, remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and ADONAI your God redeemed you from there. That is why I am ordering you to do this.

"When harvesting the grain in your field, if you forgot a sheaf of grain there, you are not to go back and get it; it will remain there for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, so that ADONAI your God will bless you in all the work you do.

When you beat your olive tree, you are not to go back over the branches again; the olives that are left will be for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow.

When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, you are not to return and pick grapes a second time; what is left will be for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow.

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. That is why I am ordering you to do this.

"If people have a dispute, seek its resolution in court, and the judges render a decision in favor of the righteous one and condemning the wicked one;

then, if the wicked one deserves to be flogged, the judge is to have him lie down and be flogged in his presence. The number of strokes is to be proportionate to his offense;

but the maximum number is forty. He is not to exceed this; if he goes over this limit and beats him more than this, your brother will be humiliated before your eyes.

"You are not to muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

"If brothers live together, and one of them dies childless, his widow is not to marry someone unrelated to him; her husband's brother is to go to her and perform the duty of a brother-in-law by marrying her.

The first child she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be eliminated from Isra'el.

If the man does not wish to marry his brother's widow, then his brother's widow is to go up to the gate, to the leaders, and say, 'My brother-in-law refuses to raise up for his brother a name in Isra'el; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother for me.'