The Marriage of Boaz and Ruth

4 No sooner had Boaz gone up to the gate and sat down there than the next-of-kin^[a] of whom Boaz had spoken came passing by. So Boaz said, “Come over;^[b] sit down here.” And he went over and sat down.^(A)

¹² But now, though it is true that I am a near kinsman, there is another kinsman more closely related than I.^(A)

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.’^(A)

Municipal Judges and Officers

¹⁸ “You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall render just decisions for the people.^(A)

¹⁹ then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place.

Interlude: An Appeal to the Exiles

⁶ Up, up! Flee from the land of the north, says the Lord, for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven, says the Lord.^(A)