Deuteronomy 25:6

Summary

The verse describes the outcome of the levirate union commanded in the preceding verses: the first son born from this union will carry the name and status of the deceased brother, so that the dead man's name is not lost from Israel's lineage.

Key words

• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — sequential perfect (vav + perfect) continuing the narrative chain from the prior verses; it marks this as the next stage in the legal procedure rather than a separate command.
• be.khOr ("firstborn", H1060) — definite noun, the subject of the sentence; specifies that the provision applies to the first son born of the union, not to later children.
• ya.Kum ("he will stand", H6965I) — qal imperfect; used idiomatically with the following preposition 'al ("on", H5921A) plus shem ("name", H8034) to mean "arise upon the name," i.e., take up or succeed to the position/name of another.
• yi.ma.Cheh ("it will be wiped out", H4229A) — niphal (passive) imperfect; the passive form removes the agent, stating simply that erasure of the name will not occur, without specifying who would cause or prevent it.
• shem...'a.Chi...ha.Met ("name of his dead brother") — a construct chain (shem + 'a.Chi + suffix + participle ha.Met, H4191) that binds "name," "brother," and "the dead one" into a single genitive phrase describing whose name is at stake.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative vav on ha.Yah, which links this verse directly to the legal scenario just described (a widow without a son and her brother-in-law). The grammatical subject is ha.be.khOr ("the firstborn"), further defined by the relative clause 'asher te.Led ("whom she will bear"), so the subject is not yet born but anticipated. The main verb ya.Kum ("he will stand") governs the prepositional phrase 'al-shem 'a.chiv ha.met ("upon the name of his dead brother"), an idiom in which "standing on a name" denotes succeeding to or continuing that name and its associated inheritance rights, rather than a physical posture.

The second clause, introduced by ve.lo' ("and not"), uses the niphal (passive) yi.ma.cheh ("it will be wiped out") for she.mo ("his name"). The passive voice leaves the responsible agent unstated — the text asserts only the negative outcome (non-erasure), not who acts to prevent it. The final phrase mi.Yisra'El ("from Israel") situates the preservation of the name within the collective genealogical structure of the nation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be.khOr ("firstborn") as paidion ("child"), a more general term than the Hebrew's specific "firstborn." For ya.Kum 'al-shem, the LXX has katastathēsetai ek tou onomatos ("he will be established from the name"), using a passive verb and the preposition ek ("from") rather than the Hebrew's 'al ("upon"), altering the idiomatic sense of succession.

The Vulgate diverges further: appellabit ("he will call/name") is an active verb implying someone names the child after the deceased brother, rather than the child himself "standing upon" the name as in the Hebrew idiom. The Vulgate also does not explicitly render the relative clause "whom she will bear" as a separate description of the subject in the same way the Hebrew structures it.