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Question: What is the Old Testament law governing the penalty for a man who marries his brother's wife?Answer: Thank you for your question. Let's take a Biblical look at a few things. "And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless" (Leviticus 20:21).
Now this above simply states that they will not have any children. But remember, this is dealing with a brother who takes (meaning to marry, according to the Hebrew) his brother's wife while his brother is still alive. There are different laws dealing with this situation when the brother has already died.
But let's first look at the brother who is still alive. There is no question as to this being adultery. In that light, read Leviticus 20:10 - "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."
Therefore if Brother A has a wife named Wife A, and Brother B comes along and marries Wife A while Brother A is still alive, it is considered adultery. The penalty for both Brother B and Wife A is death.
However, if Brother A has died, then Brother B is obligated to marry Wife A. Look at Deuteronomy 25:5 - "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 an husband's brother unto her." There is more to read about this in the next few verses, but this is the obligation that Brother B has to Wife A under these circumstances.
There is similar instruction in the New Testament concerning this: Paul records in Romans 7:2-3: "For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man."
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This page was last updated December 19, 2008.
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