Boaz And Ruth Marry

Ruth 4

Boaz went up to the city gate and sat down there. Then he saw the kinsman-redeemer that he mentioned come by. Boaz said to him, “Come over here, ‘unnamed-character,’ and sit down!” So he turned and sat down. Boaz took ten elders of the city, and said, “Y’all sit down here.” So they sat down too. He said to the kinsman-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I should inform you by saying, ‘Buy it in front of those who sit here and before the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you won’t redeem it, tell me, so that I may know. For there is no one besides you with the right to redeem it, and I am after you.”

He said, “I will redeem it.”

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from the hand of Naomi, you must acquire Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his property.”

The near kindman-redeemer said, “Then I can’t redeem it, because I would endanger my own property. Take my right of redemption for yourself because I can’t redeem it.”

Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, a man would remove his sandal and gave it to the other person. This was the way of formalizing transactions in Israel. So the kindman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” Then he removed his sandal.

Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, “Y’all are witnesses today that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the dead on his property, so that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his relatives and from the gate of his hometown. Y’all are witnesses today.”

Then the elders and everyone at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May YHWH make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring which YHWH will give you by this young woman.”

Naomi Blessed with a Son

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he went in to her, YHWH enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be YHWH, who has not left you today without a near kindman-redeemer. May his name become famous in Israel!

He will restore your soul and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap, and became his caregiver. The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi”. So they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The Genealogy of David

Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Ram, and Ram fathered Amminadab, and Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon, and Salmon fathered Boaz, and Boaz fathered Obed, and Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.