²⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.^(A)

⁵ If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.^{(A) 6} The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.^(B)

⁷ However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife,^(C) she shall go to the elders at the town gate^(D) and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”^{(E) 8} Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” ⁹ his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals,^(F) spit in his face^(G) and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” ¹⁰ That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

²⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.^(A)

The Wise and Foolish Builders^(A)

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’^(B) and do not do what I say?^(C)

¹⁹ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.^(A)

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.^(A) “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.

True and False Disciples

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’^(A) will enter the kingdom of heaven,^(B) but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.^(C)

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?^(A)

¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law^(A) Tamar,^(B) “Live as a widow in your father’s household^(C) until my son Shelah^(D) grows up.”^(E) For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.