Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage

Deuteronomy 25

5 If brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, his wife shall not be married outside the family to a stranger [an excluded man]. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6 And the firstborn son shall succeed to the name of the dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 And if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuses to continue his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he stands firm and says, I do not want to take her, 9 Then shall his brother's wife come to him in the presence of the elders and pull his shoe off his foot and spit in his face and shall answer, So shall it be done to that man who does not build up his brother's house. 10 And his family shall be called in Israel, The House of Him Whose Shoe Was Loosed.

Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
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