申命记 25:5

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

兄弟可代兄弟傳宗接代“兄弟住在一起，他們中間如果有一個死了，沒有留下兒子，死者的妻子就不可出嫁外人；她丈夫的兄弟要向她盡兄弟的本分，娶她為妻，和她同房。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
弟 兄 同 居 ， 若 死 了 一 个 ， 没 有 儿 子 ， 死 人 的 妻 不 可 出 嫁 外 人 ， 他 丈 夫 的 兄 弟 当 尽 弟 兄 的 本 分 ， 娶 他 为 妻 ， 与 他 同 房 。

Contextual Overview

⁵ If two brothers are living together, and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry someone outside her husband's family. Her husband's brother must marry her, which is his duty to her as a brother-in-law. ⁶ The first son she has counts as the son of the dead brother so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel. ⁷ But if a man does not want to marry his brother's widow, she should go to the elders at the town gate. She should say, "My brother-in-law will not carry on his brother's name in Israel. He refuses to do his duty for me." ⁸ Then the elders of the town must call for the man and talk to him. But if he is stubborn and says, "I don't want to marry her," ⁹ the woman must go up to him in front of the leaders. She must take off one of his sandals and spit in his face and say, "This is for the man who won't continue his brother's family!" ¹⁰ Then that man's family shall be known in Israel as the Family of the Unsandaled. ¹¹ If two men are fighting and one man's wife comes to save her husband from his attacker, grabbing the attacker by his sex organs, ¹² you must cut off her hand. Show her no mercy.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

brethren: Matthew 22:24, Mark 12:19, Luke 20:28

husband's brother: or, next kinsman, Genesis 38:8, Genesis 38:9, Ruth 1:12, Ruth 1:13, Ruth 3:9, Ruth 4:5

Reciprocal: Genesis 19:31 - to come Leviticus 18:16 - General Ruth 1:11 - that they Ruth 2:20 - one of our Ruth 3:2 - is not Boaz Ruth 3:13 - if he will Matthew 14:4 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 24:36
Sarah, my master's wife, gave birth to a son when she was old, and my master has given everything he owns to that son.

Genesis 25:7
Abraham lived to be one hundred seventy-five years old.

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron east of Mamre. (Ephron was the son of Zohar the Hittite.)

Genesis 25:10
So Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah in the same field that he had bought from the Hittites.

Genesis 25:12
This is the family history of Ishmael, Abraham's son. (Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian servant, was Ishmael's mother.)

Genesis 25:21
Isaac's wife could not have children, so Isaac prayed to the Lord for her. The Lord heard Isaac's prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant.

Genesis 25:23
The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your body, and two groups of people will be taken from you. One group will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."

Psalms 68:18
When you went up to the heights, you led a parade of captives. You received gifts from the people, even from those who turned against you. And the Lord God will live there.

Matthew 11:27
"My Father has given me all things. No one knows the Son, except the Father. And no one knows the Father, except the Son and those whom the Son chooses to tell.

Matthew 28:18
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All power in heaven and on earth is given to me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If brethren dwell together,.... Not only in the same country, province, town, or city, but in the same house; such who had been from their youth brought up together in their father's house, and now one of them being married, as the case put supposes, they that were unmarried might live with him, and especially if the father was dead; and so may except such as were abroad, and in foreign countries, or at such a distance that this law coals not well be observed by them; though the Targum of Jonathan, and so Jarchi, interpret it of their being united in an inheritance, all by virtue of relation having a claim to their father's inheritance; so that it mattered not where they dwelt, it is the relation that is regarded, and their right of inheritance; and the above Targum describes them as brethren on the father's side, and so Jarchi says excepts his brother on the mother's side; for brethren by the mother's side, in case of inheritance, and the marrying of a brother's wife, were not reckoned brethren, as Maimonides h observes; who adds, that there is no brotherhood but on the father's side. Some think that when there were no brethren in a strict and proper sense, the near kinsmen, sometimes called brethren, were to do the office here enjoined, and which they conclude from the case of Boaz and Ruth; but Aben Ezra contradicts this, and says that instance is no proof of it, it respecting another affair, not marriage, but redemption; and says that brethren, absolutely and strictly speaking are here meant; which is agreeably to their tradition i:

and one of them die, and have no child: son, or daughter, son's son, or daughter's son, or daughter's daughter, as Jarchi notes; if there were either of these, children or grandchildren, of either sex, there was no obligation to marry a brother's wife; so, in the case put to Christ, there was no issue, the person was childless, Matthew 22:24;

the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger; by whom is meant not a Gentile, or a proselyte of the gate, or of righteousness, but any Israelite whatever, that was not of her husband's family; she might not marry out of the family; that is, she was refused by all, the design of the law being to secure inheritances, and continue them in families to which they belonged:

her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife; that is, supposing him to be unmarried, and this is indeed supposed in the first clause of the text, by dwelling with his brother; for had he been married, he would have dwelt with his wife and family apart; besides, if this law obliged a married man to marry his brother's wife, polygamy would be required and established by a law of God, which was never otherwise than permitted. This is to be understood of the eldest brother, as Jarchi, who is in an unmarried state; so it is said in the Misnah k,

"the command is upon the eldest to marry his brother's wife; if he will not, they go to all the brethren; if they will not, they return to the eldest; and say to him, upon thee is the commandment, either allow the shoe to be plucked off, or marry;''

and such a course we find was taken among the Jews in our Lord's time, Matthew 22:25;

and perform the duty of an husband's brother to her; cohabit together as man and wife, in order to raise up seed to his brother, and perform all the offices and duties of an husband to a wife; but the marriage solemnity was not to take place when it was agreed to, until three months or ninety days had passed from the death of the brother, that it might be known whether she was with child or no by her husband, and in such a case this law had no force; so runs the Jewish canon l

"a brother's wife may not pluck off the shoe, nor be married, until three months;''

that is, after her husband's death.

h Hilchot Yebum Vechalitzah, c, 1, sect, 7. i Misn. Yebamot, c. 4. sect. 5. k Yebamot, c. 4. sect. 5. l Ib. sect. 10.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The law of levirate marriage. The law on this subject is not unique to the Jews, but is found (see Genesis 38:8) in all essential respects the same among various Oriental nations, ancient and modern. The rules in these verses, like those upon divorce, do but incorporate existing immemorial usages, and introduce various wise and politic limitations and mitigations of them. The root of the obligation here imposed upon the brother of the deceased husband lies in the primitive idea of childlessness being a great calamity (compare Genesis 16:4; and note), and extinction of name and family one of the greatest that could happen (compare Deuteronomy 9:14; Psalms 109:12-15). To avert this the ordinary rules as to intermarriage are in the case in question (compare Leviticus 18:16) set aside. The obligation was onerous (compare Ruth 4:6), and might be repugnant; and it is accordingly considerably reduced and restricted by Moses. The duty is recognized as one of affection for the memory of the deceased; it is not one which could be enforced at law. That it continued down to the Christian era is apparent from the question on this point put to Jesus by the Sadducees (see the marginal references).

Deuteronomy 25:5

No child - literally, “no son.” The existence of a daughter would clearly suffice. The daughter would inherit the name and property of the father; compare Numbers 27:1-11.

Deuteronomy 25:9

Loose his shoe from off his foot - In token of taking from the unwilling brother all right over the wife and property of the deceased. Planting the foot on a thing was an usual symbol of lordship and of taking possession (compare Genesis 13:17; Joshua 10:24), and loosing the shoe and handing it to another in like manner signified a renunciation and transfer of right and title (compare Ruth 4:7-8; Psalms 60:8, and Psalms 108:9). The widow here is directed herself, as the party slighted and injured, to deprive her brother-law of his shoe, and spit in his face (compare Numbers 12:14). The action was intended to aggravate the disgrace conceived to attach to the conduct of the man.

Deuteronomy 25:10

The house ... - Equivalent to “the house of the barefooted one.” To go barefoot was a sign of the most abject condition; compare 2 Samuel 15:30.