Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, "Remain a widow at thy father's house, until Shelah my son is grown"; for he said, "Lest perhaps he die also, as his brethren did." And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.

"If brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry outside unto a stranger; her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him for a wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.