Deuteronomy 25:5-10

English Standard Version

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.’