Ruth 4 Study Notes

4:1-2 Boaz immediately went to the gate of the town, the place where important legal and social matters were transacted in the presence of the town elders. When Boaz summoned the other redeemer, he literally said, Come over here (Hb) poloni ’almoni, a rhyming phrase equivalent to our “Mr. So-and-So.” Boaz gathered a quorum of ten elders as official witnesses.

4:3-4 As a widow Naomi could not sell Elimelech’s land; however, she could assign someone else the right to use that field until the next Jubilee Year. Rather than have control over the field go (or remain) outside the family, Boaz requested an intervention in the spirit of the family redeemer laws to buy . . . back the use of the field. Since “Mr. So-and-So” was the primary relative entitled to redeem that property, Boaz was bringing the matter to his attention. If he did not redeem the property, Boaz himself was willing to act.

4:5-8 Along with the financial cost of redeeming the field, there was a social cost. The transaction also included a commitment to marry Ruth the Moabitess and thereby to seek to perpetuate the dead man’s name on his property. This is a reference back to the practice of levirate marriage in Dt 25:5-10, by which the brother of a man who died without male offspring was required to marry his widow and raise up a family in the name of the dead man. In this case, there was no legal obligation on either “Mr. So-and-So” or on Boaz, yet Boaz asserted a moral obligation to do so. At this, “Mr. So-and-So” backed away from his earlier enthusiasm. Ironically, his concern to protect his own name rather than committing to raise up heirs to the name of Elimelech led to him being left nameless. In seeking to serve self first, he inadvertently undermined his best interests. It is instead Boaz whose name would become famous (Ru 4:11) in Bethlehem. His decision was confirmed by a legal gesture that was archaic even at the time of the writing of the book—the removal of a sandal, which was given to the other party.

4:9-12 By receiving the sandal, Boaz committed himself to redeem Naomi’s property, to marry Ruth, and to perpetuate the names of Elimelech and Mahlon on their patrimony. The blessing of the elders (vv. 11-12) may simply have been conventional for married couples in Bethlehem, but it had a greater significance for Boaz and Ruth. Through Ruth, Boaz would indeed become famous and have his name remembered in Bethlehem. The link with Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah, invites a comparison and contrast between Ruth and Tamar, two foreign women who became part of Judah’s genealogy through very different means. Thus Ruth entered the lineage of the Messiah (Mt 1:5).

4:13-17 Although for ten years in Moab, Ruth had been unable to bear a son for Mahlon, through the Lord’s direct intervention she immediately conceived and bore a son for Boaz. The child would be a comfort for Naomi in her old age (lit “would sustain her grey hair”); he would be her family redeemer who would provide for her needs in her declining years. He was named Obed, a short form of Obadiah, which means “Servant of the Lord.” Though no one could bring back Naomi’s husband or sons, now she had a daughter-in-law whom all recognized as better to you than seven sons—an astonishing accolade in the ancient world.

4:18-22 The story concludes with a linear genealogy linking the child, Obed, backwards and forwards. It traces his roots back to Perez, the child born in Gn 38 out of the dubious relationship between Judah and a foreign woman, Tamar. It also traces his progeny on to King David, who is highlighted not simply because he was a great king but also because he was the Lord’s answer for the anarchy of the days of the judges, in which this story took place (1:1). The family records thus show us that the Lord had been pursuing bigger plans than just bringing together two worthy individuals or restoring the emptiness of a Judean widow. Their story formed part of the bigger plan to provide the Redeemer, Christ Jesus, whom Israel needed.