Question:
Answer:
If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is severe defilement and he has disgraced his brother; they shall be childless (Lev. 20:21).
When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry anyone outside the family; but her husband’s brother shall come to her, marrying her and performing the duty of a brother-in-law (Deut. 25:5).
On first glance these verses to appear to be a contradiction. However, reading them together, an equally plausible face-value reading would simply render the second verse an exception to the first verse.
Reading the verse from Leviticus carefully, we see that it is a blanket condemnation of marrying your brother’s wife regardless of circumstances, whether after a divorce or death. The verse from Deuteronomy appears to present the one exception to the rule—if the brother died childless—and leaves the condemnation intact in all other situations.
We can see that Deuteronomy is an exception to condemnation in Leviticus because of the emphasis on children in both verses. Leviticus states that the divine punishment for such an action will be infertility. In Deuteronomy, the very reason for marrying the brother’s widow is to have children with her on behalf of the deceased brother.
The two verses together are not contradictory but rather a simple explanation that a specific action (marrying your brother’s wife) is forbidden except for one very particular set of circumstances (he dies childless).