¹ If there is an argument between men and they go to law with one another, let the judges give their decision for the upright, and against the wrongdoer.

² And if the wrongdoer is to undergo punishment by whipping, the judge will give orders for him to go down on his face and be whipped before him, the number of the blows being in relation to his crime.

³ He may be given forty blows, not more; for if more are given, your brother may be shamed before you.

⁴ Do not keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it.

⁵ If brothers are living together and one of them, at his death, has no son, the wife of the dead man is not to be married outside the family to another man: let her husband's brother go in to her and make her his wife, doing as it is right for a brother-in-law to do.

⁶ Then the first male child she has will take the rights of the brother who is dead, so that his name may not come to an end in Israel.

⁷ But if the man says he will not take his brother's wife, then let the wife go to the responsible men of the town, and say, My husband's brother will not keep his brother's name living in Israel; he will not do what it is right for a husband's brother to do.

⁸ Then the responsible men of the town will send for the man, and have talk with him: and if he still says, I will not take her;

⁹ Then his brother's wife is to come to him, before the responsible men of the town, and take his shoe off his foot, and put shame on him, and say, So let it be done to the man who will not take care of his brother's name.

¹⁰ And his family will be named in Israel, The house of him whose shoe has been taken off.

¹¹ If two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them, coming to the help of her husband, takes the other by the private parts;

¹² Her hand is to be cut off; have no pity on her.

¹³ Do not have in your bag different weights, a great and a small;

¹⁴ Or in your house different measures, a great and a small.

¹⁵ But have a true weight and a true measure: so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁶ For all who do such things, and all whose ways are not upright, are disgusting to the Lord your God.

¹⁷ Keep in mind what Amalek did to you on your way from Egypt;

¹⁸ How, meeting you on the way, he made an attack on you when you were tired and without strength, cutting off all the feeble ones at the end of your line; and the fear of God was not in him.

¹⁹ So when the Lord your God has given you rest from all who are against you on every side, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, see to it that the memory of Amalek is cut off from the earth; keep this in mind.

¹ Am I not free? am I not an Apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord? are you not my work in the Lord?

² If to others I am not an Apostle, at least I am one to you: for the fact that you are Christians is the sign that I am an Apostle.

³ My answer to those who are judging me is this.

⁴ Have we no right to take food and drink?

⁵ Have we no right to take about with us a Christian wife, like the rest of the Apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

⁶ Or I only and Barnabas, have we no right to take a rest from work?

⁷ Who ever goes to war without looking to someone to be responsible for his payment? who puts in vines and does not take the fruit of them? or who takes care of sheep without drinking of their milk?

⁸ Am I talking as a man? does not the law say the same?

⁹ For it says in the law of Moses, It is not right to keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it. Is it for the oxen that God is giving orders?

¹⁰ Or has he us in mind? Yes, it was said for us; because it is right for the ploughman to do his ploughing in hope, and for him who is crushing the grain to do his work hoping for a part in the fruits of it.

¹¹ If we have been planting the things of the Spirit for you, does it seem a great thing for you to give us a part in your things of this world?

¹² If others have a part in this right over you, have we not even more? But we did not make use of our right, so that we might put nothing in the way of the good news of Christ.

¹³ Do you not see that the servants of the holy things get their living from the Temple, and the servants of the altar have their part in the food which is offered on the altar?

¹⁴ Even so did the Lord give orders that the preachers of the good news might get their living from the good news.

¹⁵ But I have not made use of any of these things: and I am not writing this in the hope that it may be so for me: for it would be better for me to undergo death, than for any man to make this pride of mine of no effect.

¹⁶ For if I am a preacher of the good news, I have no cause for pride in this; because I am forced to do so, for a curse is on me if I do not.

¹⁷ But if I do it gladly, I have a reward; and if not, I am under orders to do it.

¹⁸ What then is my reward? This, that when I am giving the good news, I may give it without payment, not making use of my rights as a preacher of the good news.

¹⁹ For though I was free from all men, I made myself a servant to all, so that more might have salvation.

²⁰ And to the Jews I was as a Jew, so that I might give the good news to them; to those under the law I was the same, not as being myself under the law, but so that I might give the good news to those under the law.

²¹ To those without the law I was as one without the law, not as being without law to God, but as under law to Christ, so that I might give the good news to those without the law.

²² To the feeble, I was as one who is feeble, so that they might have salvation: I have been all things to all men, so that some at least might have salvation.

²³ And I do all things for the cause of the good news, so that I may have a part in it.

²⁴ Do you not see that in a running competition all take part, but only one gets the reward? So let your minds be fixed on the reward.

²⁵ And every man who takes part in the sports has self-control in all things. Now they do it to get a crown which is of this world, but we for an eternal crown.

²⁶ So then I am running, not uncertainly; so I am fighting, not as one who gives blows in the air:

²⁷ But I give blows to my body, and keep it under control, for fear that, after having given the good news to others, I myself might not have God's approval.