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Deuteronomy 25:9-11
New English Translation
Deuteronomy 25:9-11
New English Translation
9 then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face.[a] She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!”[b] 10 His family name will be referred to[c] in Israel as “the family[d] of the one whose sandal was removed.”[e]
11 If two men[f] get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his private parts,[g]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Deuteronomy 25:9 sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.
- Deuteronomy 25:9 tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”
- Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Heb “called,” i.e., “known as.”
- Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Heb “house.”
- Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Cf. NIV, NCV “The Family of the Unsandaled.”
- Deuteronomy 25:11 tn Heb “a man and his brother.”
- Deuteronomy 25:11 tn Heb “shameful parts.” Besides the inherent indelicacy of what she has done, the woman has also threatened the progenitive capacity of the injured man. The level of specificity given this term in modern translations varies: “private parts” (NAB, NIV, CEV); “genitals” (NASB, NRSV, TEV); “sex organs” (NCV); “testicles” (NLT).
New English Translation (NET)
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