The Wilderness Years

The leaders of his town are to summon him and speak to him. If, on appearing before them, he continues to say, 'I don't want to marry her,'

then his brother's widow is to approach him in the presence of the leaders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face and say, 'This is what is done to the man who refuses to build up his brother's family.'

From that time on, his family is to be known in Isra'el as 'the family of the man who had his sandal pulled off.'

"If men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one comes up to help her husband get away from the man attacking him by grabbing the attacker's private parts with her hand,

you are to cut off her hand; show no pity.

"You are not to have in your pack two sets of weights, one heavy, the other light.

You are not to have in your house two sets of measures, one big, the other small.

You are to have a correct and fair weight, and you are to have a correct and fair measure, so that you will prolong your days in the land ADONAI your God is giving you.

For all who do such things, all who deal dishonestly, are destestable to ADONAI your God.

"Remember what 'Amalek did to you on the road as you were coming out of Egypt,

how he met you by the road, attacked those in the rear, those who were exhausted and straggling behind when you were tired and weary. He did not fear God.

Therefore, when ADONAI your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land ADONAI your God is giving you as your inheritance to possess, you are to blot out all memory of 'Amalek from under heaven. Don't forget!

"When you have come to the land ADONAI your God is giving you as your inheritance, taken possession of it and settled there;

you are to take the firstfruits of all the crops the ground yields, which you will harvest from your land that ADONAI your God is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place where ADONAI your God will choose to have his name live.

You will approach the cohen holding office at the time and say to him, 'Today I declare to ADONAI your God that I have come to the land ADONAI swore to our ancestors that he would give us.'

The cohen will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of ADONAI your God.

"Then, in the presence of ADONAI your God, you are to say, 'My ancestor was a nomad from Aram. He went down into Egypt few in number and stayed. There he became a great, strong, populous nation.

But the Egyptians treated us badly; they oppressed us and imposed harsh slavery on us.

So we cried out to ADONAI, the God of our ancestors. ADONAI heard us and saw our misery, toil and oppression;

and ADONAI brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders.

Now he has brought us to this place and given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Therefore, as you see, I have now brought the firstfruits of the land which you, ADONAI, have given me.' You are then to put the basket down before ADONAI your God, prostrate yourself before ADONAI your God,

and take joy in all the good that ADONAI your God has given you, your household, the Levi and the foreigner living with you.

"After you have separated a tenth of the crops yielded in the third year, the year of separating a tenth, and have given it to the Levi, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, so that they can have enough food to satisfy them while staying with you;

you are to say, in the presence of ADONAI your God, 'I have rid my house of the things set aside for God and given them to the Levi, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, in keeping with every one of the mitzvot you gave me. I haven't disobeyed any of your mitzvot or forgotten them.