The Wilderness Years

and the elders of his city have called for him, and spoken unto him, and he hath stood and said, I have no desire to take her;

`Then hath his brother's wife drawn nigh unto him, before the eyes of the elders, and drawn his shoe from off his foot, and spat in his face, and answered and said, Thus it is done to the man who doth not build up the house of his brother;

and his name hath been called in Israel--The house of him whose shoe is drawn off.

`When men strive together, one with another, and the wife of the one hath drawn near to deliver her husband out of the hand of his smiter, and hath put forth her hand, and laid hold on his secrets,

then thou hast cut off her hand, thine eye doth not spare.

`Thou hast not in thy bag a stone and a stone, a great and a small.

Thou hast not in thy house an ephah and an ephah, a great and a small.

Thou hast a stone complete and just, thou hast an ephah complete and just, so that they prolong thy days on the ground which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee;

for the abomination of Jehovah thy God is any one doing these things, any one doing iniquity.

`Remember that which Amalek hath done to thee in the way, in your going out from Egypt,

that he hath met thee in the way, and smiteth in all those feeble behind thee (and thou wearied and fatigued), and is not fearing God.

And it hath been, in Jehovah thy God's giving rest to thee, from all thine enemies round about, in the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee--an inheritance to possess it--thou dost blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens--thou dost not forget.

`And it hath been, when thou comest in unto the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee--an inheritance, and thou hast possessed it, and dwelt in it,

that thou hast taken of the first of all the fruits of the ground which thou dost bring in out of thy land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee, and hast put it in a basket, and gone unto the place which Jehovah thy God doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle there.

`And thou hast come in unto the priest who is in those days, and hast said unto him, I have declared to-day to Jehovah thy God, that I have come in unto the land which Jehovah hath sworn to our fathers to give to us;

and the priest hath taken the basket out of thy hand, and placed it before the altar of Jehovah thy God.

`And thou hast answered and said before Jehovah thy God, A perishing Aramaean is my father! and he goeth down to Egypt, and sojourneth there with few men, and becometh there a nation, great, mighty, and numerous;

and the Egyptians do us evil, and afflict us, and put on us hard service;

and we cry unto Jehovah, God of our fathers, and Jehovah heareth our voice, and seeth our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression;

and Jehovah bringeth us out from Egypt, by a strong hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great fear, and by signs, and by wonders,

and he bringeth us in unto this place, and giveth to us this land--a land flowing with milk and honey.

`And now, lo, I have brought in the first of the fruits of the ground which thou hast given to me, O Jehovah; --and thou hast placed it before Jehovah thy God, and bowed thyself before Jehovah thy God,

and rejoiced in all the good which Jehovah thy God hath given to thee, and to thy house, thou, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is in thy midst.

`When thou dost complete to tithe all the tithe of thine increase in the third year, the year of the tithe, then thou hast given to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, and they have eaten within thy gates, and been satisfied,

and thou hast said before Jehovah thy God, I have put away the separated thing out of the house, and also have given it to the Levite, and to the sojourner, and to the orphan, and to the widow, according to all Thy command which Thou hast commanded me; I have not passed over from Thy commands, nor have I forgotten.