Ruth 4

I went Boaz up to the gate, etc. This presents a vivid picture of the legal proceedings of the Hebrews, used to make a transaction valid and public. Cp. Deut. xxv. 7.

5 thou must buy it also of Ruth. The Hebrew is: “Thou art also buying Ruth the Moabitess,” etc.

to raise up the name of the dead. The eldest son of such a marriage was reckoned to the deceased, though he did not always bear his name.

6 lest I mar mine own inheritance. Had he had but one son by Ruth, and no other by another wife, his own name and inheritance would have been merged altogether in that of Elimelech. This narrative shows clearly the beneficial operation of the law of Deut. xxv. 7, which allowed a man, by incurring a small penalty, to decline such a marriage when it was either disagreeable or inconvenient.

7 plucked off his shoe. In Eastern countries, among unlettered people, the shoe was, and indeed still is, the pledge of a bargain, and thus the symbol of possession (see Psa. ix. 8); hence a man gave his shoe to the person to whom he transferred a property or right; and, according to the law in Deut. xxv. 9, a man who would not redeem his kinsman’s right had his shoe plucked off by the widow. It is to the first-named, not the latter practice, that the text here refers.

10 to be my wife. It has been suggested that Boaz, as himself the descendant of Rahab, a “stranger” (see Matt. i. 5), would be the more willing to marry a Moabitess.

14 kinsman. Heb., goël, “kinsman and redeemer” (see note on ch. ii. 20).

17 the father of Jesse. The word “father” is probably here used, as it is often elsewhere, in the general sense of ancestor.

the father of David. Thus God rewarded Ruth’s conjugal constancy, filial affection, and pious preference of the God and people of Israel, as well as the generosity and honour of Boaz—making them ancestors of a royal house, and, according to his human nature, of Him who is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” This is the first mention of David in our English Bible. (In the Hebrew Bible the book of Ruth follows the Song of Songs.)