Deuteronomy 25:8

8 The elders of his city will summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, 'I don't want to marry her,'

Deuteronomy 25:8 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 25:8

Then the elders of his city shall call him
Require him to come, before them, and declare his resolution, and the reasons for it; recite this law to him, and explain the nature of it, and exhort him to comply with it, or show reason why he does not, at least to have his final resolution upon it:

and speak unto him;
talk with him upon this subject, and give him their best advice; and what that was Maimonides ^F15 more particularly informs us; if it is good and advisable to marry, they advise him to marry; but if it is better advice to pluck off the shoe, they give it; as when she is young and he is old, or she is old and he young, they advise him to allow the shoe to be plucked off:

and [if] he stand [to it]: and say, I like not to take her;
if, after all the conversation, debate, and counsel between them, he is resolute, and abides by his first determination, that he will not marry her, then the following method was to be taken.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Yebum Vechalitzab, c. 4. sect. 1.

Deuteronomy 25:8 In-Context

6 The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7 But if the man doesn't want to marry his sister-in-law, she must go to the elders at the [city] gate and say, 'My brother-in-law refuses to preserve his brother's name in Israel. He isn't willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.'

8 The elders of his city will summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, 'I don't want to marry her,'

9 then his sister-in-law will go up to him in the sight of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she will declare, 'This is what is done to a man who will not build up his brother's house.'

10 And his [family] name in Israel will be called 'The house of the man whose sandal was removed.'