Deuteronomy 25:5-15

5 "When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not become the wife of a {man of another family}; her brother-in-law {shall have sex with her}, and he shall take her {to himself} as [a] wife, and he shall perform his duty as [a] brother-in-law [with respect to] her.

6 And then the firstborn that she bears {shall represent his dead brother}, so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.

7 But if the man [does] not want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister-in-law shall go up to the gate, to the elders, and she shall say, 'My brother-in-law refused {to perpetuate his brother's name} in Israel, [for] he is not willing {to marry me}.'

8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him, and [if] he persists and says, '{I do not desire to} marry her'

9 [then] his sister-in-law shall go near him before the eyes of the elders, and she shall pull off his sandal from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall {declare} and she shall say, 'This is how it is done to the man who does not build the house of his brother.'

10 And his {family} shall be called in Israel, 'The house where the sandal was pulled off.'

11 "If a man and his brother fight each other and the wife of the one [man] comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of his attacker and she stretches [out] her hand and she seizes his genitals,

12 then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not take pity.

13 "There shall not be {for your use} in your bag {two kinds of stone weights, a large one and a small one}.

14 There shall not be in your house {for your use} {two kinds of measures}.

15 [Rather] a full and honest weight shall be {for your use}; there shall be for you a full and honest {measure}, so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you may be long.

Deuteronomy 25:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 25

Several laws are contained in this chapter, as concerning beating such whose crimes required it, De 25:1-3; of not muzzling the ox in treading out the corn, De 25:4; of marrying a deceased brother's wife, when there was no issue, and of the disgrace of such that refused it, De 25:5-10; of the punishment of an immodest woman, De 25:11,12; and against bad weights and measures, De 25:13-16; and for the utter destruction of Amalek, De 25:17-19.

Footnotes

• [a]. Others: "strange man," "man outside the family" (NEB)
• [b]. Literally "shall go to her"
• [c]. Literally "to/for him"
• [d]. Literally "he shall stand upon the name of his brother the deceased"
• [e]. Literally "to cause a name to stand for his brother"
• [f]. Literally "to consummate the marriage with the widow of a [his] brother"
• [g]. Literally "I do not delight in"
• [h]. Literally "respond/answer"
• [i]. Literally "name"
• [j]. Or "the house [of the man whose] sandal was pulled off"
• [k]. Literally "to you"
• [l]. Literally "stone and stone large and small"
• [m]. Literally "for you"
• [n]. Literally "ephah and ephah large and small"
• [o]. Literally "for you"
• [p]. Literally "an ephah"