translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: DEU

label: NET study note

text: 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 () and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz ( Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6 ).


text: 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.


text: See Exod 17:8-16 .


text: This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33 .