5 "When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son , the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man . Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6 "It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother , so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel . 7 " But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife , then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say , 'My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel ; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.' 8 "Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says , 'I do not desire to take her,' 9 then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders , and pull his sandal off e his foot and spit in his face ; and she shall declare e , 'Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house .' 10 "In Israel his name shall be called , 'The house of him whose sandal is removed .' 11 "If two men , a man and his countryman , are struggling together , and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals , 12 then you shall cut off her hand ; you shall not show pity .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:5-12
Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:5-12
(Read Deuteronomy 25:5-12)
The custom here regulated seems to have been in the Jewish law in order to keep inheritances distinct; now it is unlawful.