⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.”^(A)

The Question about the Resurrection

²³ The same day some Sadducees came to him saying there is no resurrection,^[a] and they asked him a question:^{(A) 24} “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’^{(B) 25} Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. ²⁶ The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. ²⁷ Last of all, the woman herself died.

⁵ Then Boaz said, “The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth^[a] the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.”^{(A) 6} At this, the next-of-kin^[b] said, “I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”^(B)

⁷ Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm a transaction: the one took off a sandal and gave it to the other; this was the manner of attesting in Israel.^{(C) 8} So when the next-of-kin^[c] said to Boaz, “Acquire it for yourself,” he took off his sandal. ⁹ Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. 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.”^{(D) 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^[d] in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem;^(E)

Levirate Marriage

⁵ “When brothers reside together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her,^{(A) 6} and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.^{(B) 7} But if the man has no desire to marry his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’^{(C) 8} Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, ‘I have no desire to marry her,’^{(D) 9} then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, ‘This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’^{(E) 10} Throughout Israel his family shall be known as ‘the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.’

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?^(A)

¹⁶ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.^(A)

⁸ Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the Israelites shall marry one from the clan of her father’s tribe, so that all Israelites may continue to possess their ancestral inheritance.^{(A) 9} No inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the Israelites shall retain its own inheritance.”