Bible Strands
Genesis 38:8
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Judah commands his son Onan to sleep with his deceased brother Er’s widow immediately following Er’s death. This occurs during the family's response to the firstborn's death as recorded in Genesis 38.
The words — The verb יַבֵּם (ya.bem) literally means to perform the duty of a husband's brother, defining the levirate obligation. The imperative בּא (bo') commands the physical act of entering into the wife's presence.
The thread — This directive establishes the practice later codified in Deuteronomy 25:5 regarding a brother's duty to a childless widow. It surfaces again in Matthew 22:23 during a Sadducean debate and underlies the familial negotiations in Ruth 1:11.
Why it lands — The text explicitly requires the living brother to produce offspring for his deceased sibling through marital union. It demands the submission of personal desire to the preservation of the dead man's lineage.
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 Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 25:5 When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
- Matthew 22:23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him.
- Ruth 1:11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands?
- 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.”
- Leviticus 18:16 You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother.
- Numbers 36:8 Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.