Ruth 4:10

_MOREOVER 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._ Ruth the Moabitess ... have I purchased to be my wife. This connection Boaz not only might form, since Ruth had embraced the true religion, but he was under a legal necessity of forming it....

9-12 Men are ready to seize opportunities for increasing their estates, but few know the value of godliness. Such are the wise men of this world, whom the Lord charges with folly. They attend not to the concerns of their souls, but reject the salvation of Christ, for fear of marring their inheritance. But God did Boaz the honour to bring him into the line of the Messiah, while the kinsman, who was afraid of lessening himself, and marring his inheritance, has his name, family, and inheritance forgotten....

EXPOSITION RUTH 4:1 AND BOAZ WENT UP, TO THE GATE, AND SAT THERE. He "went up," for the city stood, as it still stands, on a ridge (see on Ruth 1:1; Ruth 3:6). "And sat there," on one of the stones, or stone benches, that were set for the accommodation of the townsfolk. The gateway in the East often corresponded, as a place of meeting, to the forum, or the market-place, in the West. Boaz had reason to believe that his kinsman would be either passing out to his fields, or passing in from his threshing-floor, through the one gate of the city. AND LO, THE KINSMAN OF WHOM BOAZ HAD SPOKEN WAS PASSING; AND HE SAID, HO, SUCH A ONE I TURN HITHER AND SIT HERE. And he turned and sat down. Boaz

MOREOVER, RUTH THE MOABITESS, THE WIFE OF MAHLON, HAVE I PURCHASED TO BE MY WIFE,.... Which was the condition on which the purchase of the land was, that whoever bought that should take her for his wife; nor did Boaz do evil in marrying her, though a Moabitess. Moab was not one of the nations with whom marriage was forbidden; and though it was a Heathenish and idolatrous nation, and so on that account it was not fit and proper to marry with such, yet Ruth was become a proselytess; nor was this contrary to the law in Deuteronomy 23:3, since, according to the sense the Jews give of it, it respects men, and not women, and such men who otherwise were capable of bearing offices in the congregation; "an Ammonite, and a Moabite (they say n) are forbidden, and their prohibition is a perpetual one, but their women are free immediately:'' to raise up the name of the

CHAPTER 4 THE REDEMPTION AND MARRIAGE _ 1. The other kinsman (Ruth 4:1)_ 2. His refusal (Ruth 4:6) 3. Boaz's redemption (Ruth 4:9) 4. The marriage (Ruth 4:11) 5. Naomi's happiness (Ruth 4:14) 6. The ancestry of David (Ruth 4:18) And now the other redeemer, who cannot redeem, appears. Boaz sits in the gate and hails the one whom he knew as he passeth by. He calls him not by name but said, “Ho, such a one! turn aside, and sit down here.” If Boaz had not called

RUTH 4. RUTH'S MARRIAGE. Ruth 4:1. Instead of such an one! Boaz called the person's actual name, which the narrator either does not know or does not see any need for bringing into the story. Ruth 4:2. The elders of the city are called in as witnesses of an important transaction affecting the rights of a family. For selleth we ought to read hath sold. The point is that the property had passed out of the family's hands and required to be redeemed. Ruth 4:5. Here the meaning is entirely missed in our translation. Read, Thou buyest Ruth also (_cf._ Ruth 4:10). Marriage by purchase was the ancient Semitic practice, but no more is meant here than t

FROM THE GATE. from the people of his city, "gate" being put by Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of Part) for the people wont to assemble there. App-6....

_Moreover Ruth … have I purchased_ do I buy, the same word and tense as in Ruth 4:9. This was an additional and voluntary feature of the transaction, due to the goodwill of Boaz, and as such receives the applause and congratulations of the people. _to raise up the name of the dead_ One object of the marriage was to secure the preservation of the name of the dead (see on Ruth 4:5); by a legal fiction the child of the marriage would be regarded as the son of Mahlon, Ruth 4:17 (-a son born to Naomi")....

_Boaz Marries Ruth 4:9-12_ 9And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto 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. 10 Moreover 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. 11 And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratha, and be famous in Bethlehem: 12 And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young wom

THE MARRIAGE OF BOAZ AND RUTH. THE BIRTH OF THEIR CHILD 1. Boaz WENT UP from the threshing floor to the open space by the city-gate, where the business he had in hand would have to be done, where, too, he would catch the other kinsman on his way out to the field. The author does not know this man's name, and therefore contents himself with calling him 'So and So.'...