Perhaps there might have been objection from the wife or wives already in command of the household matters.

Perhaps the widow was sometimes of a type to make the brotherly and family duty seem very hard.

At any rate, there came a time when, as the writer in Deuteronomy says, "If the man like not to take his brother's wife" he could refuse the family service.

It cost him, however, in such cases a severe ordeal.

He could be haled before the elders on the complaint that he "refused to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel." The widow "could loose his shoe from his feet and spit in his face" and say "so shall it be done unto the man that doth not build up his brother's house." The large requirement for the brother, thus indicated, passed outward to the next of kin in certain circumstances.