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Deuteronomy 25:7

in Deuteronomy 25

But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother unto me.

KJV

And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.

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This verse in Deuteronomy 25

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
And the man like not to take his brother's wife,.... The provision here made by this law, when this was the case, is such as did not take place before it became a law; for then Onan would have taken the advantage of it, and refused marrying his brother's wife, which it is plain was not agreeable to him, Gen 38:9; as many do now on one account or another.

This site's exposition

When brothers dwell together

on Deuteronomy 25:5-10

The duty exists so that the dead man's “name will not be blotted out from Israel”. Genesis 38 shows it already assumed in Judah's house.

This site's exposition

the elders at the city gate

The widow herself goes to the elders at the city gate, where the town's public business was done. Gill notes that before this law a brother had no lawful way to refuse.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

If he like her not, he is at liberty to refuse her, which, some think, was not permitted in this case before this law of Moses. Affection is all in all to the comfort of the conjugal relation; this is a thing which cannot be forced, and therefore the relation should not be forced without it.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

But the Mosaic law rendered the custom obligatory (Mt 22:25) on younger brothers, or the nearest kinsman, to marry the widow (Ru 4:4), by associating the natural desire of perpetuating a brother's name with the preservation of property in the Hebrew families and tribes.

How the passage was read

On Deuteronomy 25:5-10

On Deuteronomy 25:5-10

The law behind Ruth, and behind a famous riddle

This is levirate marriage (from Latin levir, “husband's brother”; in Hebrew yibbum): when a man dies childless, his brother marries the widow, and the first son “shall succeed to the name of his brother who is dead.” The same passage provides the release ceremony (chalitzah, the loosing of the sandal) for a brother who refuses. The book of Ruth turns on this family duty, and the tradition built a whole tractate of the Mishnah, Yevamot, on its cases.

This law is the machinery of the Sadducees' riddle in Matthew 22:23-33: seven brothers, one widow, “in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be?” The riddle only works because the duty was real law. Jesus answers the question behind the question, proving the resurrection from the Torah itself (Exodus 3:6), the one canon His questioners fully granted.

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Sources: Mishnah Yevamot 1:1 (the tractate built on this law)

The words behind it

22 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְאִם־and if

    veim-H518 →1069 times

  • לֹ֤אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • יַחְפֹּץ֙he will desire

    yachpotzH2654 →74 times

  • הָאִ֔ישׁthe man

    haishH376 →1663 times

  • לָקַ֖חַתto take

    lakachatH3947 →966 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • יְבִמְתּ֑וֹbrother's wife his

    yevimtoH2994 →5 times

  • וְעָלְתָה֩and she will go up

    vealtahH5927 →890 times

  • יְבִמְתּ֨וֹbrother's wife his

    yevimtoH2994 →5 times

  • הַשַּׁ֜עְרָהthe gate towards

    hasha'rahH8179 →374 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הַזְּקֵנִ֗יםthe elders

    hazekenimH2205 →178 times

  • וְאָֽמְרָה֙and she will say

    veamerahH559 →5305 times

  • מֵאֵ֨יןhe has refused

    meeinH3985 →

  • יְבָמִ֜יhusband's brother my

    yevamiH2993 →

  • לְהָקִ֨יםto establish

    lehakimH6965 →628 times

  • לְאָחִ֥יוfor brother his

    leachivH251 →630 times

  • שֵׁם֙a name

    shemH8034 →864 times

  • בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔לin Israel

    beyisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • לֹ֥אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • אָבָ֖הhe was willing

    ʾavahH14 →54 times

  • יַבְּמִֽי׃to act as a husband's brother for me

    yabemiH2992 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Deuteronomy: the study guide →Read Deuteronomy 25 →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Deuteronomy 25 →