Deuteronomy 25:5-10

5 "When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. ¹Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

6 "It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that ²his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7 "³But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.'

8 "Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, 'I do not desire to take her,'

9 ⁴then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off * his foot and ⁵spit in his face; and she shall declare *, 'Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.'

10 "In Israel his name shall be called, 'The house of him whose sandal is removed.'

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Deuteronomy 25:5-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 25

Several laws are contained in this chapter, as concerning beating such whose crimes required it, De 25:1-3; of not muzzling the ox in treading out the corn, De 25:4; of marrying a deceased brother's wife, when there was no issue, and of the disgrace of such that refused it, De 25:5-10; of the punishment of an immodest woman, De 25:11,12; and against bad weights and measures, De 25:13-16; and for the utter destruction of Amalek, De 25:17-19.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 5

1. Matthew 22:24; Mark 12:19; Luke 20:28
2. Ruth 4:5, 10
3. Ruth 4:5, 6
4. Ruth 4:7, 8
5. Numbers 12:14

Footnotes 2

[a]. Lit "stand on"
[b]. Lit "answer and say"