¹ When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. ² If the guilty person deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves, ³ but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes. If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes. ⁴ Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. ⁵ If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband`s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. <sup>6</sup> The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. <sup>7</sup> However, if a man does not want to marry his brother`s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband`s brother refuses to carry on his brother`s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.” ⁸ Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,”