Levirate Marriage

⁵ “When two brothers are living together and one of them dies without leaving a son, his widow must not be married outside the family to a foreigner. Instead, the brother-in-law must go to her, take her as his wife, and by doing so perform the duty of a brother-in-law. ⁶ The firstborn whom she will bear will continue the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be erased from Israel. ⁷ But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, then she^[a] must go to the elders at the city gate and declare, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perform the duty of a brother-in-law in order to preserve the name of his brother in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law.’ ⁸ Then the elders of the city are to summon him and speak with him. If he insists on saying, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ ⁹ then she is to approach her brother-in-law in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and say in response, ‘May this be done to the man who does not preserve the lineage^[b] of his brother.’ ¹⁰ Then his family name in Israel will be known as ‘the family of the one whose sandal was removed.’”