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Deuteronomy 25:8

in Deuteronomy 25

Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand, and say, I like not to take her;

KJV

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;

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This verse in Deuteronomy 25

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

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.

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

shall summon him and speak

The elders summon the brother and speak with him before anything is done, so the refusal has to be repeated before the court. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown describe the scene as a public assembly of the town's authorities. The shame of verse 9 follows only if he persists.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

In the case of Ruth we find this law executed ( Ruth iv. 7 ), but because, upon the refusal of the next kinsman, there was another ready to perform the duty of a husband's brother, it was that other that plucked off the shoe, and not the widow--Boaz, and not Ruth.
Then the elders of his city shall call him,....

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

11 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.

  • וְקָֽרְאוּ־and they will summon

    vekareu-H7121 →733 times

  • ל֥וֹ<to> <the> him

    lo

  • זִקְנֵי־[the] elders of

    ziknei-H2205 →178 times

  • עִיר֖וֹcity his

    iroH5892 →1090 times

  • וְדִבְּר֣וּand they will speak

    vediberuH1696 →1141 times

  • אֵלָ֑יוto him

    ʾelavH413 →5510 times

  • וְעָמַ֣דand he will stand firm

    veamadH5975 →521 times

  • וְאָמַ֔רand he will say

    veamarH559 →5305 times

  • לֹ֥אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • חָפַ֖צְתִּיI desire

    chafatztiH2654 →74 times

  • לְקַחְתָּֽהּ׃to take her

    lekachtahH3947 →966 times

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

Related verses

2 in all, six open

The walk

2 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Ruth 4:6

    The kinsman-redeemer replied, “I cannot redeem it myself, or I would jeopardize my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I cannot redeem it.”

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 25:25

      If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.

    • Ruth 3:13

      Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, good. Let him redeem you. But if he does not want to redeem you, as surely as the LORD lives, I…

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 →