Ruth 4:7

Ruth had been told to sit still and wait, because “the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day” (Ruth 3:18). Verse 1 shows Boaz doing exactly that. At the threshing floor in Ruth 3 he had told Ruth that a nearer kinsman stood ahead of him, and promised that if that man would not do the kinsman’s part, he would do it himself (Ruth 3:12–13). Boaz had first been named as one of the family’s kinsmen in Ruth 2:20. Now he moves from a private promise to the public place where such a promise could be made good.

The word for gate, shaʻar, means an opening, a door or gate. In Israel’s towns the gate was where the elders sat, where disputes were judged and where sales were witnessed and sealed, so a matter of land and family settled there was settled lawfully and beyond later dispute. The law sends certain family cases to the elders of a city at its gate (Deuteronomy 21:19), and the husband of the virtuous woman is “known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land” (Proverbs 31:23). By going there and sitting down, Boaz puts himself where legal business was done openly and with witnesses.

“Sat down” translates yâshab, to sit down, a verb that can mean sitting as a judge and by extension to dwell or remain. Everyone in these two verses sits: Boaz, then the kinsman, then the elders. The sitting is how a hearing at the gate began, and it shows that what follows is serious business. The same verb stands behind “the inhabitants” in verse 4, the people who dwell in the town.

“And, behold” draws our eye to the timing. Boaz has hardly sat down when the very man he needs comes by. The book of Ruth tells of God working quietly through ordinary days, and this meeting at the right moment is part of that quiet working.

Boaz “took ten men of the elders of the city.” The verb lâqach means to take in the widest sense, to fetch or bring, and here it describes a deliberate gathering for a purpose. The word for elders, zâqên, is used of persons, the old and the elders. In Israel’s towns they were the respected older men who led the community, judged its cases and witnessed its agreements, and their presence made a transaction binding.

The Law of Moses sets no fixed number of witnesses for business like this. Ten gave a full and weighty body of witnesses, and ten is the number later Jewish tradition used for a quorum, as in the minyan for synagogue prayer. The law itself required at least two or three witnesses before a matter could be established (Deuteronomy 19:15), and Jesus applies the same rule among his disciples (Matthew 18:16). Boaz goes well past that. The elders sit when he asks, which shows that they recognized his standing. By doing everything above board, Boaz protects Ruth’s good name, secures her future and makes sure the outcome can never be challenged.

The KJV’s “kinsman” in verses 1, 3, 6 and 8 translates a form of the verb gâʼal, and “redeem” in verses 4 and 6 is that same verb. It means to redeem according to Israel’s law of kinship: to be the next of kin, and as such to buy back a relative’s property, to marry his widow, and in other places to avenge his blood. So in this chapter the man is named by the duty he is expected to perform. The same verb is used of God’s own saving of his people, “I will redeem you with a stretched out arm” (Exodus 6:6) and “I have redeemed thee” (Isaiah 43:1). What a good kinsman did for a family in trouble, God does for Israel.

Two laws lie behind this scene. The first concerns land. If an Israelite grew poor and sold part of his possession, his nearest kinsman was to come and redeem it (Leviticus 25:25). The land belonged to the LORD, who said, “the land is mine” (Leviticus 25:23), so a family’s allotment could never be sold away forever. A sale was in effect a lease that lasted until the kinsman bought it back or the year of jubilee returned it (Leviticus 25:23–28), and the laws of inheritance kept land within the family line (Numbers 27:8–11). Jeremiah’s purchase of a family field during a national crisis, as a sign of hope, shows these laws still at work centuries later (Jeremiah 32:6–15).

The second law concerns a man who died without a son. His brother was to marry the widow, and her first son would carry the dead man’s name so that it would live on in Israel (Deuteronomy 25:5–10). Deuteronomy speaks of a brother, and in Ruth the duty falls to the nearer relatives of the family. Ruth’s case joins the two laws. Elimelech’s land needs redeeming, and his son Mahlon’s name needs an heir.

Boaz opens with Naomi, “that is come again out of the country of Moab.” The phrase reminds everyone at the gate that she came home a widow who had lost her husband and sons, and her poverty is why the land is now for sale. The verb mâkar means to sell, to hand something over in exchange. The KJV’s present tense, “selleth,” shows Naomi in the act of selling, or at least having made known her intent, so the matter needs attention now. “A parcel of land” is chelqâh, a portion or allotment of ground, a word that can also mean smoothness or flattery elsewhere. Here it is a definite piece of Elimelech’s family land. Boaz calls him “our brother Elimelech,” and the word for brother, ʼâch, is used in the widest sense of relationship. By it Boaz reminds the kinsman of the family bond they share and the duty that comes with it.

“What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess.” The verb for buy, qânâh, means to acquire or buy, and to possess or own. It stands twice in this verse, for buying the field and for buying from Ruth, and Boaz holds the two together as one transaction. Whoever acquires the land acquires the duty to Ruth along with it.

Boaz calls her “Ruth the Moabitess,” which may have reminded the kinsman of her foreign birth, and “the wife of the dead.” The verb behind “the dead” is mûwth, to die, and “the dead” stands twice in the verse. The dead man is Mahlon, Ruth’s husband, and his death without a son is the whole problem the redeemer is meant to solve.

“To raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance” gives the purpose. The verb qûwm, in the form used here, means to raise or set up, and with shêm, name, it means to keep a dead man’s name alive through an heir. The word for inheritance, nachălâh, is something inherited, an allotted possession, usually land passed down through the generations. A son born to Ruth would count as Mahlon’s heir, carry his name and hold his portion of the land. In Israel that meant far more than property. It kept a man’s place among his people, his memory in the community, and his family’s share in the land God had given.

“I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance.” The verb shâchath means to decay, or to ruin, spoil or corrupt. The kinsman can see the cost. He would buy the land and support Ruth and any children, and then her first son would take the land under Mahlon’s name. The land itself, sold out of poverty, might also have been run down. His own estate would shrink to benefit a dead relative’s name. “For myself” shows how he weighs it, by what it would mean for him and his own heirs. The same word nachălâh stands for his inheritance here and for Mahlon’s in verse 5, and he chooses to protect his own.

“Redeem thou my right to thyself” formally hands his place to Boaz. “My right” is gᵉʼullâh, redemption, a word that covers both the right to redeem and the thing redeemed. “I cannot” comes twice in the verse, at the beginning and the end, and the repetition closes the matter so that no claim remains. His words express inability and unwillingness together.

The contrast with Boaz is plain. The nearer kinsman held the first right and turned it down to guard his estate. Boaz, the more distant relative, takes up the whole costly duty gladly in Ruth 4:9–10. The irony runs deeper still, because in protecting his inheritance the man gave up a place in the line that leads to Obed, to David and beyond (Ruth 4:17–22). God used even his reluctance to clear the way for the redeemer he had in mind.

Verse 7 pauses the story to explain a custom the first readers no longer practised. “In former time” renders a phrase built on pânîym, face, which here means before or earlier, so the custom was already old. It applied “concerning redeeming,” gᵉʼullâh, “and concerning changing,” tᵉmûwrâh, a word for exchange, barter or compensation. Together they cover redemption itself and any exchange or transfer of rights, such as the nearer kinsman’s handing of his right to Boaz.

The purpose was “for to confirm all things.” “Confirm” is qûwm again, the same verb as “raise up” in verse 5, here meaning to make a matter stand. “A man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour.” The verb shâlaph means to pull out or off, the shoe is naʻal, a sandal, and the neighbour is rêaʻ, an associate or fellow, here the man receiving the right. “And this was a testimony in Israel”: tᵉʻûwdâh means an attestation, so the act was public proof that the matter was settled.

A shoe is the thing a man walks his land in. God promised Israel every place the sole of their foot would tread (Deuteronomy 11:24, Joshua 1:3), and so the shoe could stand for a man’s right to walk on and hold the land. Handing it over handed over the claim, in a way everyone present could see and remember, at a time when written deeds were less common.

Verse 8 shows the custom carried out. The kinsman says, “Buy it for thee,” using the same verb qânâh, and so authorizes Boaz to acquire the land and with it the duty to Ruth. “So he drew off his shoe” uses shâlaph, the same verb as “plucked off” in verse 7. His words and his act together sealed the transfer before the elders and the people, and Boaz could now go forward with no legal challenge left.

A redeemer in Israel had to be a kinsman, and he had to be both able and willing. The nearer man in this passage had the right and turned back at the cost. Boaz took up the whole duty. In this Boaz points us to Jesus Christ. To become our kinsman, the Son of God took our flesh and blood and was made like his brothers in every way (Hebrews 2:14–17). God sent him, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive the adoption of sons (Galatians 4:4–5). He redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).

The price he paid was his own blood. We have redemption through his blood (Ephesians 1:5–7), bought with the precious blood of Christ rather than with silver or gold (1 Peter 1:18–19). The church is the flock he purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28), and by it he obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12). The heavenly song praises the Lamb who redeemed people to God by his blood out of every kindred and nation (Revelation 5:9). Like Boaz’s business at the gate, his work was done in the open. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and at the cross he was “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). God has given assurance of all this to all men by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:31).

The nearer kinsman feared to mar his own inheritance. Paul describes the opposite in Christ (Philippians 2:5–8): “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” Though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes so that through his poverty we might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). He endured the cross and despised its shame (Hebrews 12:2), counting the full cost and paying it.

What he gains for us is an inheritance. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into his kingdom, in whom we have redemption (Colossians 1:13–14). In him we have obtained an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11). Those who receive him are given power to become the sons of God (John 1:12), heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15–17), with an inheritance that cannot decay, kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:3–4). Boaz raised up a name for the dead in Israel. Christ gives his people a name and a place in God’s family that will last forever.

This scene at the gate shows us a God who cares about a widow’s field and a dead man’s name. He wrote laws to protect families like Naomi’s, and here those laws are kept by an honest man on an ordinary morning, in front of the whole town. Boaz promised that he would settle the matter, and before the day was out he did, openly and fairly, giving the other man every chance. His yes was yes, as Jesus would later teach his followers to speak (Matthew 5:37).

The passage also lets us feel the weight of what redemption costs. The nearer kinsman counted the cost and stepped back. Boaz counted it and went forward. Behind them both stands the Redeemer to whom the whole book points, who counted the cost of our redemption and paid it all, so that those who were poor and without an heir now have a name and an inheritance in him.