²⁸ and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us ^(A)that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man^[a] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage

^5 (A)“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her ^(B)husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. ⁶ And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that ^(C)his name may not be blotted out of Israel. ⁷ And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall ^(D)go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ^(E)‘I do not wish to take her,’ ⁹ then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and ^(F)pull his sandal off his foot and ^(G)spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not ^(H)build up his brother's house.’ ¹⁰ And the name of his house^[a] shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’

⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to ^(A)your brother's wife and ^(B)perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb ^(A)that they may become your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,

²⁶ Then Judah identified them and said, ^(A)“She is more righteous than I, since ^(B)I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.

¹¹ Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, ^(A)“Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained ^(B)in her father's house.