saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’
24. Master, Moses said. As it was enough to mention the bare fact, why do they make use of this preface? They cunningly employ the name of Moses, for the purpose of proving that they were lawful marriages, which had been contracted not by the will of men, but by the command and appointment of God himself. But that God should contradict Himself is impossible.
Likewise the second also,.... The eldest of the surviving brethren, having married his brother's wife, after sometime died also without children, and left her to his next brother to marry her; and the third brother accordingly did marry her, and in process of time died likewise, leaving no issue behind him; and thus they went on in course, unto the seventh: the fourth, fifth, and...
Verse 24. Saying, Master, Moses said, etc. . This law was given by Moses in order to keep the families and tribes of the Israelites distinct, and to perpetuate them. Raise up seed unto his brother. That is, the children shall be reckoned in the genealogy of the deceased brother; or, to all civil purposes, shall be considered as his. (d) "If a man die"