(M37) Among the Israelites, the levirate was in full force; the craving for continuance was the same as among the followers of Manu and the Greeks; and the custom with regard to heiresses is so vividly told that it is worth quoting at some length.
Deut. xxv. 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 [_i.e._ next of kin] shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife and perform the duty of an husband's brother to her.
"And it shall be that the firstborn which she beareth shall _succeed in the name of his brother that is dead_, that his name be not put out of Israel.
"And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders and say, 'My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.'
"Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak unto him: and if he stand to it and say, 'I like not to take her,' 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 (LXX. { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}).'
"And his name shall be called in Israel, 'The house ({ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}) of him that hath his shoe loosed.' "
(M38) Such was the scorn felt for the man who refused to perform the duties of nearest kinsman. In the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis is told the story of Tamar, the wife of Judah's eldest son who died childless. The second son's refusal to raise up seed to his brother because he knows that _his own name will not be perpetuated thereby, but his brother's_, meets with summary punishment. "And the thing that he did was evil in the sight of the Lord, and He slew him also."(72) Afterwards, when it was reported to her father-in-law that Tamar had a child by some one not of his family, he was exceedingly wroth, and said, "Bring her forth and let her be burnt." Accordingly, after he had received his own "tokens" from her hand, his approval of her action, in her desire to perpetuate the name of her dead husband, is all the more striking, and shows how real such a claim as Tamar's was in the practice of those days, extreme though her action was felt to be. And Judah acknowledged his tokens and said, "She hath been more righteous than I: because that I gave her not to Shelah my [youngest] son."