The Levirate Marriage Law

Deuteronomy 25:5

Exact text from the New American Bible (Catholic)

 Levirate Marriage  5 “When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry anyone outside the family; but her husband’s brother shall go to her and perform the duty of a brother-in-law by marrying her.  6 The first-born son she bears shall continue the line of the deceased brother; that his name may not be blotted out from Israel.  7 If, however, a man does not care to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go up to the elders at the gate and declare, “My brother-in-law does not intend to perform his duty toward me and refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel.  8 Thereupon the elders of the city shall summon him and admonish him.  If he persists in saying ‘I am not willing to marry her’, his sister-in-law, in the presence of the elders, shall go up to him and strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face, saying publicly, ' This is how one should be treated who will not build up his brother’s family!’  10 And his lineage shall be spoken of in Israel as ‘the family of the man stripped of his sandal.’

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