Deuteronomy 25:9

then the woman shall approach him in the sight of the elders, and she shall remove his shoe from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall say: ‘So shall it be done to the man who was not willing to build up his brother’s house.’

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house.

In Context

8And immediately, they shall summon him to be sent, and they shall question him. If he responds, ‘I am not willing to accept her as a wife,’

10And his name shall be called in Israel: The House of the Unshod.

Read all of Deuteronomy 25

Cross References

Numbers 12:14And the Lord answered him: “If her father had spit on her face, should she not have been filled with shame for at least seven days? Let her be separated, outside the camp, for seven days, and after that, she will be called back.”

Ruth 4:7Yet it was the custom between kinsmen in this former time in Israel, that if at any time one yielded his right to another, so as to confirm his permission, the man took off his shoe and gave it to his neighbor. This was a testimony of concession in Israel.

Ruth 4:10And Ruth, the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, I have taken in marriage so as to raise up the name of the deceased in his posterity, so that his name will not be cut off from among his family and his brethren and his people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing.”

Job 30:10They loathe me, and so they flee far from me, and they are not reluctant to spit in my face.

Isaiah 50:6I have given my body to those who strike me, and my cheeks to those who plucked them. I have not averted my face from those who rebuked me and who spit on me.

Matthew 27:30And spitting on him, they took the reed and struck his head.

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 25:6-13

Marriage of a Brother's Wife. ( b. c. 1451.) 5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. 6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. 7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Deuteronomy 25:9