Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 25:6
The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the assembled Israelites at the plains of Moab, establishing civil statutes they must enforce upon entering the land. The verse specifies the procedural outcome when a levirate union produces a male child.
The words — The Hebrew phrase יָקוּם עַל־שֵׁם (ya.kum al-shem) literally means "he will stand on the name." This legal idiom denotes the assumption of a deceased man’s lineage and property rights rather than physical presence.
The thread — The preservation of a family line appears in Deuteronomy 21:19 regarding parental authority at the city gate and is directly contrasted in Psalms 9:5 and Psalms 109:13, where the psalmist prays for the wicked to have their names erased rather than maintained.
Why it lands — The text commands the firstborn son to assume the legal and genealogical identity of his deceased grandfather. A reader must apply this as a binding civil duty that secures inheritance and lineage, not as a voluntary memorial act.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 21:19 his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,
- Psalms 9:5 You have rebuked the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have erased their name forever and ever.
- Psalms 109:13 May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
- Genesis 28:8 And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,
- Deuteronomy 9:14 Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”
- Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
- Ruth 4:1 Meanwhile, Boaz went to the gate and sat down there. Soon the kinsman-redeemer of whom he had spoken came along, and Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
- Ruth 4:10 Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to raise up the name of the deceased through his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his brothers or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today.”