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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Deuteronomy 25:5 - 25:10
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The Levirate Marriage
v. 5. If brethren dwell together, upon the same paternal inheritance, and one of them die and have no child, no one to perpetuate his family, and thus to keep his property in the possession of the family, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger, any one outside her tribe or kindred; her husband's brother, or, as history shows, her nearest kinsman, Gen_38:8; Rth_1:12, shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. Thus the marriage with a sister-in-law, otherwise forbidden by Law, Lev_18:16, was made a duty in this case.
v. 6. And it shall be that the first-born which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, being considered and registered in the genealogical table as the son and rightful heir of his mother's first husband, that his name be not put out of Israel. In this way many difficult questions concerning inheritances were avoided.
v. 7. And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, for the marriage was not an absolute or unavoidable duty, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, for questions of right and justice mere usually disposed of in the open space inside the city gates, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, to perpetuate his family in the manner here provided for, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother, namely, by marrying the widow.
v. 8. Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak unto him; and if he stand to it and say, I like not to take her, if he found himself unable to throw off the unwillingness to comply with the custom as fixed by the levirate lam,
v. 9. then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, go directly up to him right there in public, because he was bound to submit to what followed, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. Her act of contempt in a way compensated her for the reproach which the man heaped upon her by refusing to marry her, and thus to found and establish his brother's family. The taking off of the shoe was a custom signifying the ceding of a piece of ground or property to some one else, just as one declares his rights of ownership by stepping upon such property. The disgrace in this case consisted in the fact that the woman loosed the man's shoe, thus publicly depriving him of his right to the property of his dead brother.
v. 10. And his name shall be called in Israel "The house of him that hath his shoe loosed. " So the disgrace would rest upon the man, even in the nickname which he bore, for having neglected the duty of relationship to his brother. There is no discrepancy between this passage and the law of Leviticus 18. For the marriage with one's sister-in-law was forbidden when there were children, since the integrity of the brother's house was thus upheld; here it was commanded in order to keep the family of the brother from becoming extinct.