Ruth 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
The period of the judges, roughly 1200 to 1050 BC, with the closing family line pointing forward to about 1000 BC
Location
The town gate of Bethlehem, the open space just inside the wall where legal business was conducted
Audience
Israelites reading in a later era, likely during or after the monarchy, interested in where King David came from
Situation
Boaz brings the nearer relative before ten town elders at the gate and offers him Naomi's land, then adds that taking the land means taking Ruth as well. The man withdraws, Boaz marries Ruth, and their son Obed becomes the grandfather of David.
Key Background
The town gate was the courthouse of an Israelite village, and a panel of elders sitting there gave a transaction public witnesses, which is what made it binding without written contracts. Removing a sandal and handing it over was an old symbolic act sealing the transfer of a right, and the narrator explains it because the custom had already fallen out of use by the time the book was written. Ending with a family line running to David gives the story its point for later readers, since Israel's most celebrated king had a Moabite great-grandmother.
Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the and sat down there. Sure enough, the family redeemer he'd mentioned came walking by. Boaz called out, "Hey, — come sit down here." So he came over and sat down.
Boaz gathered of the and said, "Sit down here." They sat down.
Then he said to the family redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is the of that belonged to our relative Elimelek."
"I thought I should bring this to your attention and say: Buy it in the presence of these witnesses and the elders of my people. If you're going to it, it. But if you won't, tell me, so I know — because no one has the right to it except you, and I'm next in line." The man said, "I'll it."
Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow — to the with
The redeemer said, "Then I can't redeem it — it would up my own You take my right of redemption. I can't do it."
Now in earlier times in Israel, to finalize any transaction involving redemption or exchange, one person would a and hand it to the other. This was how agreements were made official in Israel.
So when the redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it yourself," he took off his sandal.
Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelek, Kilion, and Mahlon."
"I am also Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, as my wife — to continue the dead man's name with his property, so that his name won't disappear from his family or from the records of his town. You are witnesses today."
All the people at the gate, along with the elders, said, "We are witnesses! May Yahweh make the woman coming into your home like and who together built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in and be famous in Bethlehem."
"May your house be like the house of whom bore to Judah — through the children Yahweh gives you by this young woman."
So Boaz married Ruth, and she became his wife. When they came together, to and she gave birth to a son.
The women said to Naomi, He hasn't left you without a today. May this child become famous in Israel!"
"He will and sustain you in old age. daughter-in-law, who loves you — and who is to you than — has given birth to him."
Naomi took the child, held him close, and became his caretaker.
The neighborhood women said, "Naomi has a son!" And they named him He became the father of Jesse, who was the father of
This is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Ram, and Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of and was the father of Obed.
Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of