Ruth 4:11

_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 EPHRATAH, AND BE FAMOUS IN BETHLEHEM:_ All the people ... and the elders, said, We are witnesses. A multitude, doubtless, from curiosity or interest, were present on the occasion. There was no signing of deeds; yet was the transfer made, and complete security given, by the public manner in which the whole matter was carried on and concluded. THE LORD MAKE THE WOMAN ... LIKE RACHEL AND LIKE LEAH. This was the usual bridal benediction....

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....

Verse Ruth 4:11. WE ARE _WITNESSES._] It is not very likely that any writing was drawn up. There was an appeal made to the people then present, whether they had seen and understood the transaction; who answered, _We have witnessed it_. If any minutes of court were kept, then the transaction was entered probably in some such words as these: "On --- day of ---, Boaz bought the land of Elimelech from Naomi his widow, and took Ruth, her daughter-in-law, to wife; ---, who had the nearest right, refusing to buy the land on the conditions then proposed." _THE LORD MAKE THIS WOMAN - LIKE RACHEL AND LIKE LEAH_] May thy family be increased by her means, as the tribes were formed by means of _Rachel_ and _Leah_, wives of the patriarch Jacob! _WHICH TWO DID BUILD THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL_] We have already seen that בן _ben_, a

See the margin. There is something of a poetical turn in this speech of the elders, and something prophetic in the blessing pronounced by them. It is unique and obscure. The Greek Version (lxx) is unintelligible. Jerome seems to have had a slightly different reading, since he applies both clauses to Ruth. “May she be a pattern of virtue in Ephratah, and have a name famous in Bethlehem.” The meaning of “be famous” seems to be, Get thyself a name which shall be celebrated in Bethlehem, as the head of a powerful and illustrious house: literally it is, “proclaim a name,” i. e. cause others to proclaim thy name, as in Ruth 4:14....

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

AND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE IN THE GATE, AND THE ELDERS, SAID, WE ARE WITNESSES,.... Both of the purchase of the estate by Boaz being legally made, and of the marriage of Ruth to him, the condition of the bargain: THE LORD MAKE THE WOMAN THAT IS COME INTO THINE HOUSE; not into his house, strictly and literally taken, the place of his habitation; for both he and she were now at the gate of the city, and as yet she was not introduced into his house; but by his marriage of her she was brought into his family, and was become a principal part of it, being his wife. This is a wish, prayer, or benediction of the elders, of one in the name of the rest, congratulating the married couple, and wishing them well; and particularly that the woman Boaz had married before them, as witnesses, might be LIKE RACHEL AND LIKE LEAH, WHICH TWO DID BUILD THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL: the two wives of Jacob; the Targu...

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

BE FAMOUS. proclaim. name....

_like Rachel and like Leah_ Genesis 29:31 to Genesis 30:24. May Ruth become the ancestress of a famous race! Dante ranks her fourth after Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, in Paradise; _Parad._xxxii. 10 ff. For _did build the house of Israel_cf. Deuteronomy 25:9 and Genesis 14:2; Genesis 30:3 mg. _do thou worthily_ lit. -achieve might"; the phrase is sometimes rendered -do valiantly," e.g. Numbers 24:18;...