But if the man does not want to marry his brother's widow, then she must go to the elders at the city gate and declare, "My husband's brother refuses to perform the duty of a brother-in-law in order to preserve the name of his brother in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law.'

"The man specifically asked about us and our relatives," they responded. "He asked us, "Is your father still alive?' and "Do you have another brother?' So we answered his questions. How could we have known that he would tell us to bring our brother back with us?"

"But we told him, "We can't go back there. If our youngest brother accompanies us, we'll go back, but we cannot see the man's face again unless our youngest brother accompanies us.'

"If a man takes his brother's wife, it's immoral. He has exposed his brother's nakedness. They'll be childless."

then she is to approach her brother-in-law in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and say in response, "May this be done to the man who does not preserve the lineage of his brother.'

Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, who ran out to the man and met him at the spring.

"But look!" Jacob pointed out to his mother Rebekah, "My brother Esau is a hairy man, but I'm smooth skinned.

But Judah reminded him, "The man distinctly warned us: "You'll never see my face unless your brother comes with you.'

But if you don't send him, we're not going, because the man told us, "You'll never see my face unless your brother is with you.'"

Israel replied, "Why did you make all this trouble by telling the man that you have another brother?"

And be sure to take your brother, too. So get up, return to the man,

and may God Almighty cause the man to show compassion toward you. May he send all of you back, including your other brother and Benjamin. Now as for me, if I lose my children, I lose them."

He told them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, "Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and each of you kill his brother and friend and neighbor.'"

Moses said, "You have been ordained to serve the LORD today, and you have brought a blessing on yourselves today because every man opposed his son or brother."

I charged your judges at that time, "When you hold a hearing between brothers, judge fairly between a man and his brother or between foreigners.

Even the compassionate man among you the very sensitive one will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared.

Meanwhile, Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, who was the son of David's brother Shimeah. Now Jonadab was a very shrewd man.

A man with many friends can still be ruined, but a true friend sticks closer than a brother.

"For a man will grab his brother in his own father's house, and say, "You have a cloak, so you be our leader, and this heap of ruins will be under your rule!'

The faithful have died off, and there is not one upright human being in the land. They all stalk one another with lethal intent, a man will even hunt his own brother with a net.

Do we not have one father? Has not one God created us? Why does each of us act deceitfully, each man against his own brother, to profane the covenant of our ancestors?