Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 22:2 
Context22:2 If the owner 1 does not live 2 near you or you do not know who the owner is, 3 then you must corral the animal 4 at your house and let it stay with you until the owner looks for it; then you must return it to him.
Deuteronomy 25:9
Context25:9 then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. 5 She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” 6
Deuteronomy 31:16
Context31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, 7 and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they 8 are going. They 9 will reject 10 me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 11
1 tn Heb “your brother” (also later in this verse).
2 tn Heb “is not.” The idea of “residing” is implied.
3 tn Heb “and you do not know him.”
4 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the ox or sheep mentioned in v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.
6 tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”
7 tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”
8 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
10 tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).
11 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
