¹⁰ In addition, I have bought as my wife the Moabite Ruth, Mahlon’s widow, to keep the inheritance in the dead man’s name. In this way the dead man’s name will not be cut off from his relatives or from the public records. Today you are witnesses.”

¹¹ All the people who were at the gate, including the leaders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make this wife, who is coming into your home, like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built our family of Israel. So show your strength of character in Ephrathah and make a name for yourself in Bethlehem. ¹² Also, from the descendant whom Yahweh will give you from this young woman, may your family become like the family of Perez, the son whom Tamar gave birth to for Judah.”