Deuteronomy 25:8

8 Then the town leaders are to summon him and speak to him. If he still refuses 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 that they have will be considered the son of the dead man, so that his family line will continue in Israel.

7 But if the dead man's brother does not want to marry her, she is to go before the town leaders and say, "My husband's brother will not do his duty; he refuses to give his brother a descendant among the people of Israel.'

8 Then the town leaders are to summon him and speak to him. If he still refuses to marry her,

9 his brother's widow is to go up to him in the presence of the town leaders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face, and say, "This is what happens to the man who refuses to give his brother a descendant.'

10 His family will be known in Israel as "the family of the man who had his sandal pulled off.'