(5) When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and leaves no offspring, the wife of the deceased shall not become wife outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall unite with her: he shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s duty. (6) And it shall be that the first child that she bears shall be established in the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out in Israel. (7) But if the man does not want to take his brother’s widow, his brother’s widow shall appear before the elders in the gate and declare, “My husband’s brother refuses to establish a name in Israel for his brother; he will not perform the duty of a levir.” (8) The elders of his town shall then summon him and talk to him. If he insists, saying, “I do not want to take her,” (9) his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull the sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and speak out and say: Thus shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house! (10) And he shall go in Israel by the name of “the family of the unsandaled one.”
