Essay sur Le Deutéronome 25:5
כִּֽי־יֵשְׁב֨וּ אַחִ֜ים יַחְדָּ֗ו וּמֵ֨ת אַחַ֤ד מֵהֶם֙ וּבֵ֣ן אֵֽין־ל֔וֹ לֹֽא־תִהְיֶ֧ה אֵֽשֶׁת־הַמֵּ֛ת הַח֖וּצָה לְאִ֣ישׁ זָ֑ר יְבָמָהּ֙ יָבֹ֣א עָלֶ֔יהָ וּלְקָחָ֥הּ ל֛וֹ לְאִשָּׁ֖ה וְיִבְּמָֽהּ׃
Si des frères demeurent ensemble et que l’un d’eux vienne à mourir sans postérité, la veuve ne pourra se marier au dehors à un étranger; c’est son beau-frère qui doit s’unir à elle. Il la prendra donc pour femme, exerçant le lévirat à son égard.
The Five Books of Moses, by Everett Fox
A number of stories and laws in the Bible clarify how important the continuity of the generations, as represented by carrying on a man’s name, was considered in ancient Israel. Here the law provides for the widow of a man who dies without heirs to provide one, through the institution of “levirate marriage”—whereby the man’s brother marries her, and the subsequent offspring bears the deceased brother’s name. This institution, applied to a more distant relative, vividly appears in the book of Ruth, which in fact contains a ceremony scene (4:1–11) of the kind set forth here.
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