Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 25:7
But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The text directs the widow to approach the city elders at the gate when her brother-in-law refuses to marry her. This procedure activates immediately after the command to preserve the deceased husband's lineage.
The words — The phrase לֹא יַחְפּוֹץ (loʾ yachpotz) literally renders "he does not desire" to take his brother's wife. The verb עָלְתָה (ʿal-tah) means "she will go up," marking her physical movement to the public civic space.
The thread — This gate-side declaration mirrors the legal proceedings recorded in Ruth 4:1 and Ruth 4:5, where widows and kinsman-redeemers publicly resolve marriage and land obligations.
Why it lands — The text establishes that refusing a familial duty requires a formal public process that removes the matter from private discretion. It demands that the reader accept civic accountability as the mechanism for enforcing family obligations.
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 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.
Cross-references
- 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 4:5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and also from Ruth the Moabitess, you must also acquire the widow of the deceased in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.”