Ruth 4 WBT
Summary: Boaz goes to the town gate, the place of legal business, and before ten elders confronts the nearer kinsman with the opportunity to redeem Elimelech's land and marry Ruth. The man declines once he realizes doing so would endanger his own estate, and formalizes his refusal by removing his sandal and handing it to Boaz, the customary sign of transferred rights. Boaz then publicly redeems the property and takes Ruth as his wife; she bears a son, Obed, whom the women of Bethlehem celebrate as a restorer of Naomi's line. The book closes with a genealogy tracing the family from Perez through Boaz and Obed to Jesse and his son David, revealing Ruth's place in the ancestry of Israel's greatest king.
1Then Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there: and behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by; to whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.
2And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down.
3And he said to the kinsman, Naomi, that has come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which [was] our brother Elimelech's:
4And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy [it] before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem [it], redeem [it]: but if thou wilt not redeem [it], [then] tell me, that I may know: for [there is] none to redeem [it] besides thee; and I [am] after thee. And he said, I will redeem [it].
5Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy [it] also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
6And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem [it] for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem [it].
7Now this [was the manner] in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for confirming all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave [it] to his neighbor: and this [was] a testimony in Israel.
8Therefore the kinsman said to Boaz, Buy [it] for thyself. So he drew off his shoe.
9And Boaz said to the elders, and [to] all the people, Ye [are] witnesses this day, that I have bought all that [was] Elimelech's, and all that [was] Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi.
10Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye [are] witnesses this day.
11And all the people that [were] in the gate, and the elders said, [We are] witnesses. The LORD make the woman that hath come into thy house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth-lehem:
12And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.
13So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in to her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.
14And the women said to Naomi, Blessed [be] the LORD, who hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.
15And he shall be to thee a restorer of [thy] life, and a nourisher of thy old age: for thy daughter-in-law, who loveth thee, who is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him.
16And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became its nurse.
17And the women, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he [is] the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18Now these [are] the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron,
19And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab,
20And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon,
21And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed,
22And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.
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