The Law of Levirate Marriage

Deuteronomy 25:5-10

"If brothers live together, and one of them dies childless, his widow is not to marry someone unrelated to him; her husband's brother is to go to her and perform the duty of a brother-in-law by marrying her.

The first child she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be eliminated from Isra'el.

If the man does not wish to marry his brother's widow, then his brother's widow is to go up to the gate, to the leaders, and say, 'My brother-in-law refuses to raise up for his brother a name in Isra'el; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother for me.'

The leaders of his town are to summon him and speak to him. If, on appearing before them, he continues to say, 'I don't want to marry her,'

then his brother's widow is to approach him in the presence of the leaders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face and say, 'This is what is done to the man who refuses to build up his brother's family.'

From that time on, his family is to be known in Isra'el as 'the family of the man who had his sandal pulled off.'

The Law of Levirate Marriage

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