Ver. 5-10. If brethren dwell together, &c.— The great end of this law was, to preserve inheritances in the families to which they belonged: and the meaning plainly is, that, if a brother died without children, the next unmarried relation, whether brother or kinsman, was to marry the wife of the deceased, and raise up children to him. This appears evidently from the case put to our Saviour, as well as from the affair of Ruth and Boaz. A lenient provision, however, is made for such relations as should not choose to marry the brother's wife, though a degree of infamy is attached to the refusal. The wife, three months after her husband's death, was to go up to the gate where the court of judgment sat, where, the next relation being summoned, and refusing to marry her, she was to loose his shoe from off his foot, as a mark of infamy, for his want of natural affection; importing, that he deserved to be degraded into the condition of slaves, who were wont to go barefoot: accordingly, it appears to have been used as a sign of infamy and degradation, Isaiah 2:4. Some, however, think, that as the shoe was an emblem of power, Psalms 9:8; Psalms 108:9 this symbolical action signified, that he was deprived of all right to the inheritance of his brother. Besides this taking off of the shoe, the widow was to spit in, or, as the rabbis expound it, before his face; i.e. in his sight, as the word signifies, ch. Deuteronomy 4:37 as a mark how much she despised him who had despised her: and she was to say, So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house; that is, who will not raise up a son and heir to him, to preserve his house or family from being extinct; while the house of the refuser was to be stigmatised with the disgraceful name of the house of him that hath his shoe loosed. It appears from Genesis 38:7-8 that this also was only the renewal of a patriarchal law; though one would be apt to believe, from the story of Onan, that it was not then allowed to refuse marrying the brother's widow; a mitigation of the law now, perhaps, first inserted. From this law the king was exempted, according to the rabbis; and they might have added, the high-priest, as appears from Leviticus 21:13-14. Bishop Huet assures us, that some of the Indians and Persians, and the Tartars who inhabit Iberia and Albania, still retain this custom. See his Demonst. Evang prop. iv. c. xi. sect. 1.
Deuteronomy 25:5-10
5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.
6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.
8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;
9 Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.
10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.