Later, he reviewed his opinion by pointing to the object of Levirate marriage, and contending that as no children had been the result of the union, the King must have married his brother's widow without the intention of continuing his brother's line, and consequently the marriage was illegitimate and invalid.
"Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ"
Rev. A. Bernstein, B.D.
The object of the book has been supposed by some to be to commend the so-called Levirate marriage.
"Introduction to the Old Testament"
John Edgar McFadyen
This is improbable: not so much because the marriage was not strictly Levirate, since neither Boaz nor the kinsman was the brother-in-law of Ruth-it would be fair enough to regard this as a legitimate extension of the principle of Levirate marriage, whose object was to perpetuate the dead man's name-but rather because this is a comparatively subordinate element in the story.
"Introduction to the Old Testament"
John Edgar McFadyen