And have taken to wife Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Mahalon, to raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance lest his name be cut off, from among his family and his brethren and his people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing.
Ruth 4:8 So Booz said to his kinsman: Put off thy shoe. And immediately he took it off from his foot.
Ruth 4:9 And he said to the ancients, and to all the people: You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and Chelion's, and Mahalon's, of the hand of Noemi:
Ruth 4:10 And have taken to wife Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Mahalon, to raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance lest his name be cut off, from among his family and his brethren and his people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing.
Ruth 4:11 Then all the people that were in the gate, and the ancients, answered: We are witnesses: The Lord make this woman who cometh into thy house, like Rachel, and Lia, who built up the house of Israel: that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and may have a famous name in Bethlehem:
Ruth 4:12 And that the house may be, as the house of Phares, whom Thamar bore unto Juda, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman.
The verse centers on "taken", "wife", "ruth", "moabitess", "mahalon", "raise", and "name". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "taken" and "wife", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 9's "And he said to the ancients and..." into verse 11's "Then all the people that were in...", so "taken" and "wife" belong inside that flow. In Ruth context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "taken" and "wife" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.