Noemi offers her land holdings for sale 1 Then Booz went up to the gate, and sat there. And when he had seen the kinsman going by, of whom he had spoken before, he said to him, calling him by his name: Turn aside for a little while, and sit down here. He turned aside, and sat down. 2 And Booz taking ten men of the elders of the city, said to them: Sit down here. 3 They sat down, and he spoke to the kinsman: Noemi, who has returned from the country of Moab, will sell a parcel of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 I would have you to understand this, and would tell you before all that sit here, and before the elders of my people. If you will take possession of it by the right of kindred: buy it and possess it: but if it does not please you, tell me so, that I may know what I have to do. For there is no near kinsman besides you, who are first, and me, who am second. But he answered: I will buy the field.
Booz wins Ruth in the transaction 5 And Booz said to him: When you shall buy the field at the woman's hand, you must take also Ruth the Moabitess, who was the wife of the deceased: to raise up the name of your kinsman in his inheritance. 6 He answered: I yield up my right of next akin: for I must not cut off the posterity of my own family. Do you make use of my privilege, which I profess I do willingly forego. 7 Now this in former times was the manner in Israel between kinsmen, that if at any time one yielded his right to another: that the grant might be sure, the man put off his shoe, and gave it to his neighhour; this was a testimony of cession of right in Israel. 8 So Booz said to his kinsman: Put off your shoe. And immediately he took it off from his foot. 9 And he said to the elders 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: 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. 11 Then all the people that were in the gate, and the elders answered: We are witnesses: The Lord make this woman who comes into your 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: 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 your of this young woman.
Booz marries Ruth 13 Booz therefore took Ruth, and married her: and went in unto her, and the Lord gave her to conceive and to bear a son. 14 And the women said to Noemi: Blessed be the Lord, who has not suffered your family to want a successor, that his name should be preserved in Israel. 15 And you should have one to comfort your soul, and cherish your old age. For he is born of your daughter in law: who loves you: and is much better to you, than if you had seven sons. 16 And Noemi taking the child laid it in her bosom, and she carried it, and was a nurse unto it. 17 And the women her neighbours, congratulating with her and saying: There is a son born to Noemi: called his name Obed: he is the father of Isai, the father of David.
Geneology from Phares to David 18 These are the generations of Phares: Phares begot Esron, 19 Esron begot Aram, Aram begot Aminadab, 20 Aminadab begot Nahasson, Nahasson begot Salmon, 21 Salmon begot Booz, Booz begot Obed, 22 Obed begot Isai, Isai begot David.
Commentary for Ruth 4
4:1 went to the gate: In former times judgments were held at the gate of the city, so that the place of justice might be open to everyone, quickly and easily. (Nicholas of Lyra Com Ruth) It was the custom of the ancients, as some commentators claim, to hold assemblies and meetings at the gates. So since they assembled there, the prophets also delivered their reproofs there as well. (Theodoret of Cyrus Com Amos 5:10)
4:3 our brother Elimelech: He calls him brother because he was a relative, and this way of speaking is frequent in Scripture. (Nicholas of Lyra Com Ruth) will sell: Noemi sold the field when she left, under a contract where it could be bought back by her closest kinsman. (Hugh of St. Cher Com Ruth)
4:6 He probably had children from another woman; since if he took Ruth as his wife he would have to look after the education of the children born from her and make provision for them, and consequently he would be less able to make provision for the children which he had from the other woman. (Nicholas of Lyra Com Ruth) |
4:8 This is a sign that one man is unloosened from the Law, and the other is tied to it. Deut 25:9 describes how the wife of the dead man loosened the sandal and spat in the face of the man who was unwilling to revive the dead man’s name. But this was when the woman was present, together with him, in front of the judges, and he refused to take her as his wife. But when another relative joined them, just as is described here, then the man himself loosened his sandal. (Nicholas of Lyra Com Ruth)
4:13 Ruth had already converted to the faith and worship of the one God and was supported in this by her good life, and so the prohibition about taking foreign wives in Deut 7:2-3 has no place here. (Nicholas of Lyra Com Ruth)
4:22 Isai: or, according to a different punctuation of the Hebrew, Jesse. The name itself prefigured Jesus Christ, who was to be born of him. For Jesse and Jesus are the same word if we consider the root of both, which is to be found in the Hebrew ישצ iasca, to save. (Cornelius A. Lapide Com Matt. 1:3) |
Josephus on Ruth
Now about noon Booz went down into the city, and gathered the senate together, and when he had sent for Ruth, he called for her kinsman also; and when he was come, he said, "Dost not thou retain the inheritance of Elimelech and his sons?" He confessed that he did retain it, and that he did as he was permitted to do by the laws, because he was their nearest kinsman. Then said Booz, "Thou must not remember the laws by halves, but do every thing according to them; for the wife of Mahlon is come hither, whom thou must marry, according to the law, in case thou wilt retain their fields." So the man yielded up both the field and the wife to Booz, who was himself of kin to those that were dead, as alleging that he had a wife already, and children also; so Booz called the senate to witness, and bid the woman to loose his shoe, and spit in his face, according to the law; and when this was done, Booz married Ruth, and they had a son within a year's time. Naomi was herself a nurse to this child; and by the advice of the women, called him Obed, as being to be brought up in order to be subservient to her in her old age, for Obed in the Hebrew dialect signifies a servant. The son of Obed was Jesse, and David was his son, who was king, and left his dominions to his sons for one and twenty generations. I was therefore obliged to relate this history of Ruth, because I had a mind to demonstrate the power of God, who, without difficulty, can raise those that are of ordinary parentage to dignity and splendor, to which he advanced David, though he were born of such mean parents.
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