“Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.”
Boaz's explicit statement that he is acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be his wife so that the deceased man's name might be perpetuated in Israel and the inheritance maintained establishes the Levirate dimension of the transaction as the purpose of the entire redemptive act. His public acknowledgment of Ruth as a Moabite, combined with his assumption of the obligation to marry her, represents a remarkable statement about the inclusion of a foreign woman in the covenant community and in the lineage of Israel. The emphasis on perpetuating Mahlon's name connects this marriage to the covenant promise and the continuation of Israel's people.
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