³ “No Ammonite or Moabite shall come into the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation. None of their descendants shall come into the assembly of the Lord forever,

Foreigners Separated from Israel

13 On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,^{(A) 2} because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.^(B)

Mixed Marriages Condemned

²³ In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab,^(A)

^7 [a]But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry^(A)

³ Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “That stone wall they are building—any fox going up on it would break it down!”^(A)

⁶ At this, the next-of-kin^[a] said, “I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”^(A)

¹⁰ I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance, in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place; today you are witnesses.”^{(A) 11} Then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you produce children^[a] in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem;^{(B) 12} and, through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”^(C)

The Genealogy of David

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a son.^{(D) 14} Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin,^[b] and may his name be renowned in Israel!^{(E) 15} He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.”^{(F) 16} Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom and became his nurse. ¹⁷ The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸ Now these are the descendants of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron,^{(G) 19} Hezron of Ram, Ram of Amminadab, ²⁰ Amminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon,^{[c] 21} Salmon of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, ²² Obed of Jesse, and Jesse of David.