Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, August 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Chinese NCV (Simplified)

申命记 25:8

本城的長老就要把那人叫來,對他說明;如果他堅持說:‘我不樂意娶她’,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Brother;   Government;   Inheritance;   Marriage;   Widow;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Barrenness;   Marriage;   Sandals;   Widow;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Inheritance;   Punishment;   Ruler;   Widow;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Duty;   Immorality, Sexual;   Wealth;   Widow;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Levirate Law;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Boaz;   Heir;   Pentateuch;   Shealtiel;   Zerubbabel;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Adoption;   Avenger;   Court Systems;   Family;   Kinsman;   Levirate Law;   Levirate Law, Levirate Marriage;   Resurrection;   Ruth;   Shealtiel;   Spit, Spittle;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Family;   Firstborn;   Leviticus;   Marriage;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Spitting;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Marriage;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Government of the Hebrews;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Heir;   Husband's Brother;   Law in the Old Testament;   Like;   Relationships, Family;   Saul;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Blood-Relationship;   Brother;   Conditions;   Family and Family Life;   ḥaliẓah;   Marriage;   Mishnah;   Nashim;  

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
本 城 的 长 老 就 要 召 那 人 来 问 他 , 他 若 执 意 说 : 我 不 愿 意 娶 他 ,

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

I like not: Ruth 4:6

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 7:21 - a mighty God

Cross-References

Genesis 15:15
And you, Abram, will die in peace and will be buried at an old age.
Genesis 25:7
Abraham lived to be one hundred seventy-five years old.
Genesis 25:8
He breathed his last breath and died at an old age, after a long and satisfying life.
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 25:17
Ishmael lived one hundred thirty-seven years and then breathed his last breath and died.
Genesis 25:28
Isaac loved Esau because he hunted the wild animals that Isaac enjoyed eating. But Rebekah loved Jacob.
Genesis 25:29
One day Jacob was boiling a pot of vegetable soup. Esau came in from hunting in the fields, weak from hunger.
Genesis 35:18
Rachel gave birth to the son, but she herself died. As she lay dying, she named the boy Son of My Suffering, but Jacob called him Benjamin.
Genesis 49:29
Then Israel gave them a command and said, "I am about to die. Bury me with my ancestors in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.
Numbers 20:24
"Aaron will die. He will not enter the land that I'm giving to the Israelites, because you both acted against my command at the waters of Meribah.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 o 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.

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

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.


 
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