5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me." 8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, "I do not want to marry her," 9 his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line." 10 That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.
This was not an easy story to understand in todays context of life, for being called the 'family of the unsandaled' would probably not cause too much grief now, but then, it probably was a big shame. One's name and place in the tribe was probably pretty important to them in the context that they were living in.
So if you were a brother, you'd probably want to make sure your sibling married someone you liked as if he died without producing an offspring, she would become your wife. But what if you didn't like her? What if she was mean? What if you didn't have the money to support another mouth to feed? Well, then you got spit in the face and called the family of the unsandaled!
4 comments:
Being "unsandaled" was significant because it represented a transfer in the rights of inheritance. Ruth 4 is a beautiful example of this, where Boaz acts as the "kinsman redeemer" for Ruth. But Boaz was not the nearest of kin to do such a thing, so he arranged a meeting at the city gate. There the man who was the next of kin, passed on this right to Boaz with his sandal.
So, the situation described in Deut 22 allows the unmarried widow to claim inheritance rights and shame the reluctant brother.
A weird example of this happening is in Gen 38, where the sons of Judah shirk their responsibility to their widowed sister-in-law Tamar. God actually kills Onan for shirking this responsibility. Judah finally gives his daughter in law sons, but only because he thought she was a prostitute. Her sons then become ancestors to David.
Thanks- I had never connected this to the Tamar story!
Great insights
So I already felt God in the Ruth story since 2021… niw, Tamar and unsandaled story. Wow! Both these stories are new to me and came to me back to back. Then I found them resources together… I feel the God who sees but I wonder what He is saying specifically. I think it has to do with the holes in the system and the people who left me all alone to figure it out and get run through every hole in the systems no I am not the victim! Not at all.. and that is only bcuz I am going to the Source… the Word. How many SOS hashtags til my breakthrough? Idk but I know God sees and I won’t prototype myself like Tamar or spit in the fake Boaz’s face. I will wait for true story I hear God say and let him use me as he may to test the hearts bcuz he certainly has tested mine and now seems he uses me to test others nutually
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