LEV'IRATE MARRIAGE (from Lat. /orb-. Gk. aaiip, doer. Skt. AS. tacor, 0110. zeih hur, husband's brother). The marriage of a man to the widow of his deceased brother. This was an ancient usage widely prevalent at certain stages of civilization, and rests ultimately upon the circumstance that the wife as the property of a man passed at his death with his estate to his heir. upon whom the obligation rested to pro vide for the widow and her children. or if there were no children. to secure issue. Gen. xxxviii. is an example of this ware. The ancient custom is carried over into the Dent cronomie Code (Dent. xxv. 5-10), where provision is made that a man must marry his deceased brother's widow in no son is horn of the first ma rrinE.T. However. certain modifications are introduced which indi sate a departure from the earlier custom. The obligation rested on a surviving brother only in ease he 'dwelled together' (i. e. on the family estate) with the deceased; and while formerly all the male offspring of the second marriage were regarded as the issue of the deceased. according to Deuteronomy only the eldest son of the new marriage was to be so considered. It appears also that even with these modifications, the cus tom was falling into disuse, for the Deuteronomic Code provides a ceremony whereby a surviving brother can evade the obligation. though in doing
so he is subjectvd to an insult by the widow, who draws off her brother-in-law's sandal and spits in his face. The situation in the post-exilic Book of Ruth implies this custom, though still further modified. The brother of Elimeleeh upon whom rested the obligation to marry Naomi for feits the privilege and also the duty to redeem the field which Naomi was forced to sell, but there is no longer connected with the formal re pudiation any such ceremony of public obloquy as is prescribed in Deuteronomy. The Priestly Code ( Lev. xviii. 16; xx. 21) represents the final stage in the decay of this custom—its abro gation. Marriage with a deceased brother's wife is forbidden without qualification, and evidently because of economic abuses to which the ancient custom led with advancing social culture. The contradiction between Deuteronomy and Leviticus was embarrassing to the Jewish Rabbis. In the days of Jesus the levirate law was still observed in certain circles, hut the Talmud effects a com promise by recognizing the validity of the Priestly Code, lent combining its execution with the performance of the ceremony prescribed in Deuteronomy, which is still observed among or thodox .lews. Consult the Hebrew arehxologies of Norwack and Bcnzingcr.