Now there were seven brethren
In a certain family, at a certain place; perhaps at Jerusalem, who were brethren by the father's side; for such only were reckoned so, and such only did this law oblige:
and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed:
no child: hence it is clear that the ancient Jews used the word seed, of a single person, as these Sadducees did; though modern ones deny such an use of it in our present controversies with them about the sense of ( Genesis 3:15 ) ( 22:18 ) ; (See Gill on Matthew 22:25).