¹³ Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer,^(A) good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives^(B) I will do it.^(C) Lie here until morning.”

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite,^(A) the^[a] dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”^(B)

²⁰ “The Lord bless him!^(A)” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.^(B) “He has not stopped showing his kindness^(C) to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative;^(D) he is one of our guardian-redeemers.^[a](E)”

⁵ If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.^{(A) 6} The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.^(B)

⁷ However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife,^(C) she shall go to the elders at the town gate^(D) and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”^{(E) 8} Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” ⁹ his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals,^(F) spit in his face^(G) and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.”

¹⁶ People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument.^(A)

²⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.^{(A) 25} Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. ²⁷ Finally, the woman died.

¹⁹ Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the Lord lives,^(A) if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.”

²³ I call God as my witness^(A)—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you^(B) that I did not return to Corinth.