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)

²⁴ “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’^(A)

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)

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)

²⁸ and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man^[a] shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.^(A)

¹² But now, though it is true that I am a near kinsman, there is another kinsman more closely related than I.^{(A) 13} Remain this night, and in the morning, if he will act as next-of-kin^[a] for you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to act as next-of-kin^[b] for you, then, as the Lord lives, I will act as next-of-kin^[c] for you. Lie down until the morning.”^(B)