Genesis 38:8

38:8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Have sexual relations with ¹  your brother’s wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her so that you may raise ²  up a descendant for your brother.” ³ 

Genesis 38:11

38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, ⁴  “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” ⁵  So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

Deuteronomy 25:5-10

Respect for the Sanctity of Others

25:5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband’s brother must go to her, marry her, ⁶  and perform the duty of a brother-in-law. ⁷  25:6 Then ⁸  the first son ⁹  she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel. 25:7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, then she ¹⁰  must go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me!” 25:8 Then the elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, “I don’t want to marry her,” 25:9 then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. ¹¹  She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” ¹²  25:10 His family name will be referred to ¹³  in Israel as “the family ¹⁴  of the one whose sandal was removed.” ¹⁵ 

Ruth 1:11

1:11 But Naomi replied, “Go back home, my daughters! There is no reason for you to return to Judah with me! ¹⁶  I am no longer capable of giving birth to sons who might become your husbands! ¹⁷ 

Mark 12:19

12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man ¹⁸  must marry ¹⁹  the widow and father children ²⁰  for his brother.’ ²¹ 

Luke 20:28

20:28 They asked him, ²²  “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, that man ²³  must marry ²⁴  the widow and father children ²⁵  for his brother. ²⁶ 

[38:8]  ¹ tn Heb “go to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[38:8]  ² tn The imperative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose.

[38:8]  ³ sn Raise up a descendant for your brother. The purpose of this custom, called the levirate system, was to ensure that no line of the family would become extinct. The name of the deceased was to be maintained through this custom of having a child by the nearest relative. See M. Burrows, “Levirate Marriage in Israel,” JBL 59 (1940): 23-33.

[38:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “said.”

[38:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Otherwise he will die, also he, like his brothers.”

[25:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”

[25:5]  ⁷ sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).

[25:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and it will be that.”

[25:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “the firstborn.” This refers to the oldest male child.

[25:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister in law.” In the second instance the pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation to avoid redundancy.

[25:9]  ¹¹ sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.

[25:9]  ¹² tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”

[25:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “called,” i.e., “known as.”

[25:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[25:10]  ¹⁵ tn Cf. NIV, NCV “The Family of the Unsandaled.”

[1:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Why would you want to come with me?” Naomi’s rhetorical question expects a negative answer. The phrase “to Judah” is added in the translation for clarification.

[1:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Do I still have sons in my inner parts that they might become your husbands?” Again Naomi’s rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[12:19]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “his brother”; but this would be redundant in English with the same phrase “his brother” at the end of the verse, so most modern translations render this phrase “the man” (so NIV, NRSV).

[12:19]  ¹⁹ tn The use of ἵνα (Jina) with imperatival force is unusual (BDF §470.1).

[12:19]  ²⁰ tn Grk “raise up seed” (an idiom for fathering children).

[12:19]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.

[20:28]  ²² tn Grk “asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[20:28]  ²³ tn Grk “his brother”; but this would be redundant in English with the same phrase “his brother” at the end of the verse, so most modern translations render this phrase “the man” (so NIV, NRSV).

[20:28]  ²⁴ tn The use of ἵνα (Jina) with imperatival force is unusual (BDF §470.1).

[20:28]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and raise up seed,” an idiom for procreating children (L&N 23.59).

[20:28]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. Because the OT quotation does not include “a wife” as the object of the verb, it has been left as normal type. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.