Si fuerit causa inter aliquos, et interpellaverint judices: quem justum esse perspexerint, illi justitiæ palmam dabunt: quem impium, condemnabunt impietatis.

Not always will the judges be content, in settling a dispute, with giving the rightful claimant his due, and dismissing the other;

If there be a controversy between men, and they call upon the judges: they shall give the prize of justice to him whom they perceive to be just: and him whom they find to be wicked, they shall condemn of wickedness.

Sin autem eum, qui peccavit, dignum viderint plagis: prosternent, et coram se facient verberari. Pro mensura peccati erit et plagarum modus:

it may be this other deserves a beating. If so, they will have him laid on the ground and beaten in their presence, and his punishment will be greater or less according to his guilt;

And if they see that the offender be worthy of stripes: they shall lay him down, and shall cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be:

ita dumtaxat, ut quadragenarium numerum non excedant: ne fœde laceratus ante oculos tuos abeat frater tuus.

provided always that the number of lashes must not exceed forty. Wouldst thou see thy brother go away all mangled?

Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother depart shamefully torn before thy eyes.

Non ligabis os bovis terentis in area fruges tuas.

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn on thy threshing-floor.

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor.

Quando habitaverint fratres simul, et unus ex eis absque liberis mortuus fuerit, uxor defuncti non nubet alteri: sed accipiet eam frater ejus, et suscitabit semen fratris sui:

When two brethren share the same house, and one dies childless, his widow must not take a husband elsewhere; the survivor must wed her, and beget children in his dead brother’s name.

When brethren dwell together, and one of them dieth without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry to another: but his brother shall take her, and raise up seed for his brother:

et primogenitum ex ea filium nomine illius appellabit, ut non deleatur nomen ejus ex Israël.

And the first son she bears him he must account as the dead man’s heir, so that his line shall not be lost to Israel.

And the first son he shall have of her he shall call by his name, that his name be not abolished out of Israel.

Sin autem noluerit accipere uxorem fratris sui, quæ ei lege debetur, perget mulier ad portam civitatis, et interpellabit majores natu, dicetque: Non vult frater viri mei suscitare nomen fratris sui in Israël, nec me in conjugem sumere.

It may be he will refuse to take his brother’s wife, although the law binds her to him. Then the woman will make her way to the city gate, and protest to the elders there, This brother-in-law of mine refuses to wed me and beget children in his brother’s name.

But if he will not take his brother’s wife, who by law belongeth to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and call upon the ancients, and say: My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up his brother’s name in Israel: and will not take me to wife.

Statimque accersiri eum facient, et interrogabunt. Si responderit: Nolo eam uxorem accipere:

Thereupon they will summon and question him, and if he persists in refusing to take her,

And they shall cause him to be sent for forthwith, and shall ask him. If he answer: I will not take her to wife:

accedet mulier ad eum coram senioribus, et tollet calceamentum de pede ejus, spuetque in faciem illius, et dicet: Sic fiet homini, qui non ædificat domum fratris sui.

the woman will go up to him, there in the presence of the elders, and take off one of his shoes, and spit in his face. This, she will say, is for the man who would not continue his brother’s line,

The woman shall come to him before the ancients, and shall take off his shoe from his foot, and spit in his face, and say: So shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother’s house:

Et vocabitur nomen illius in Israël, Domus discalceati.

and Barefoot Breed is the name by which he will be known in Israel.

And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of the unshod.

Si habuerint inter se jurgium viri duo, et unus contra alterum rixari cœperit, volensque uxor alterius eruere virum suum de manu fortioris, miseritque manum, et apprehenderit verenda ejus:

If two men fall out and come to blows, it may be that the wife of the weaker man will come up to his rescue, and lay hands upon the other, taking shameful hold of him.

If two men have words together, and one begin to fight against the other, and the other’s wife willing to deliver her husband out of the hand of the stronger, shall put forth her hand, and take him by the secrets,

abscides manum illius, nec flecteris super eam ulla misericordia.

That hand of hers must be struck off, and no mercy be shewn to her.

Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her regard.

Non habebis in sacculo diversa pondera, majus et minus:

Thou shalt not carry two different weights in thy wallet, one heavy and one light,

Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a less:

nec erit in domo tua modius major, et minor.

or keep two bushel-measures in thy house, one great and one small.

Neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less.

Pondus habebis justum et verum, et modius æqualis et verus erit tibi: ut multo vivas tempore super terram, quam Dominus Deus tuus dederit tibi.

A just weight and a true, a full bushel-measure and a true thou shalt use always, if thou wouldst have long enjoyment of the land the Lord thy God means to give thee.

Thou shalt have a just and a true weight, and thy bushel shall be equal and true: that thou mayest live a long time upon the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee.

Abominatur enim Dominus tuus eum qui facit hæc, et aversatur omnem injustitiam.

All such knavery is hateful to the Lord thy God; he is the enemy of wrong-doing.

For the Lord thy God abhorreth him that doth these things, and he hateth all injustice.

Memento quæ fecerit tibi Amalec in via quando egrediebaris ex Ægypto:

Do not forget how Amalec treated thee on thy way here from Egypt.

Remember what Amalec did to thee in the way when thou camest out of Egypt:

quomodo occurrerit tibi, et extremos agminis tui, qui lassi residebant, ceciderit, quando tu eras fame et labore confectus: et non timuerit Deum.

Reckless of the divine vengeance, he crossed thy path and cut off the stragglers from thy ranks, as they halted for weariness, faint with hunger and toil.

How he met thee: and slew the hindmost of the army, who sat down, being weary, when thou wast spent with hunger and labour, and he feared not God.

Cum ergo Dominus Deus tuus dederit tibi requiem, et subjecerit cunctas per circuitum nationes in terra, quam tibi pollicitus est: delebis nomen ejus sub cælo. Cave ne obliviscaris.

When the Lord thy God allows thee to rest secure, master of all the nations that dwell in the land he has promised thee, thou shalt blot out Amalec from human remembrance; keep this in mind constantly.

Therefore when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest, and shall have subdued all the nations round about in the land which he hath promised thee: thou shalt blot out his name from under heaven. See thou forget it not.