The Judges & Ruth

Stay this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform for you the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman’s part. But if he will not do the part of a kinsman for you, then I will do the part of a kinsman for you, as the LORD lives. Lie down until the morning.”

She lay at his feet until the morning. She rose up before one could discern another. For he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”

He said, “Bring the mantle that is on you, and hold it.” She held it; and he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her; and he went into the city.

When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did it go, my daughter?” She told her all that the man had done to her.

She said, “He gave me these six measures of barley; for he said, ‘Don’t go empty to your mother-in-law.’”

Then she said, “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall; for the man will not rest, until he has finished the thing this day.”

Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there. Behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by; to whom he said, “Come over here, friend, and sit down!” He turned aside, and sat down.

He took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here.” They sat down.

He said to the near kinsman, “Naomi, who has come back out of the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s.

I thought to disclose it to you, saying, ‘Buy it before those who sit here, and before the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know. For there is no one to redeem it besides you; and I am after you.” He said, “I will redeem it.”

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must buy it also from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance.”

The near kinsman said, “I can’t redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption for yourself; for I can’t redeem it.”

Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man took off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the way of attestation in Israel.

So the near kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” He took off his shoe.

Boaz said to the elders, and to all the people, “You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi.

Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses this day.”

All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.

Let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give you of this young woman.”

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.

The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman; and let his name be famous in Israel.

He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”

Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it.

The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi”; and they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron,

and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab,