Hebrew word · H2992

יָבַם

yabemi

be brother-in-law

A verb built from the noun yābām, 'husband's brother'. Its form here (Piel) means 'to do what a husband's brother does': take up a sexual and marital union with a dead brother's childless widow so that a son can be born and counted as the dead man's heir.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) (Piel) to perform levirate marriage, perform the duty of a brother-in-law

1a) the duty due to a brother who died childless - to marry his widow and have a son for his name

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 38:8

Range of meaning

A verb built from the noun yābām, 'husband's brother'. Its form here (Piel) means 'to do what a husband's brother does': take up a sexual and marital union with a dead brother's childless widow so that a son can be born and counted as the dead man's heir. Related words are yābām, 'husband's brother' (Deut 25:5, 7), and yəbēmet, 'brother's widow' or 'sister-in-law' (Deut 25:7, 9; Ruth 1:15). The verb itself appears only in Genesis 38:8 and Deuteronomy 25:5, 7 (BDB, HALOT).

Against the English

KJV and YLT say 'marry her'. BSB, ESV, NASB, NIV and WEB spell out a 'duty' of a brother-in-law or husband's brother. 'Marry' catches part of it, since in Deuteronomy 25:5 he 'takes her as his wife'. But it hides what makes this union unusual: the child it produces is legally someone else's. English has no single word for this. Scholars borrow the Latin levir ('husband's brother'), which gives the term 'levirate marriage'.

How it drifted

No real word-drift. The problem is that English has no equivalent, so translators either flatten it to 'marry' or explain it as 'duty'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Similar customs are found across the ancient Near East. Hittite Laws §193 has the brother, then the father, take the widow. Middle Assyrian Laws A §§30, 33 and 43 have a father-in-law give a widow to another of his sons. In Ugaritic texts the goddess Anat carries the title ybmt (l)imm, related to this root, but what that title means is disputed. The Septuagint renders the verb here as gambreuō, 'to take as a relative by marriage', and Matthew 22:24 echoes it with epigambreuō.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 38:8 וְיַבֵּ֣ם and act as a husband's brother for

    Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”

    Here: A command built from the noun yābām, 'husband's brother'. It means 'act as the husband's brother toward her': take your dead brother's place with his widow so she can bear a child for him. The verb appears only here and in Deuteronomy 25:5, 7.

Deuteronomy · 2

  1. Deuteronomy 25:5 וְיִבְּמָֽהּ׃ and he will act as a husband's brother for her

    When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

    Here: A verb made from the noun 'husband's brother': 'and he shall act as husband's brother to her'. It names the whole recognised duty in one word, and in the Bible it appears only here, in v. 7 and in Gen 38:8.

  2. Deuteronomy 25:7 יַבְּמִֽי׃ to act as a husband's brother for me

    But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.