Ruth 4:2

_AND HE TOOK TEN MEN OF THE ELDERS OF THE CITY, AND SAID, SIT YE DOWN HERE. AND THEY SAT DOWN._ _ AND HE TOOK TEN MEN OF THE ELDERS OF THE CITY, AND SAID, SIT YE DOWN HERE. AND THEY SAT DOWN._ Ten men of the elders of the city-as witnesses. In ordinary circumstances two or three were sufficient to attest a bargain; but in cases of importance, such as matrimony, divorce, conveyancing of property, it was the Jewish practice to have ten (1 Kings 21:8)....

1-8 This matter depended on the laws given by Moses about inheritances, and doubtless the whole was settled in the regular and legal manner. This kinsman, when he heard the conditions of the bargain, refused it. In like manner many are shy of the great redemption; they are not willing to espouse religion; they have heard well of it, and have nothing to say against it; they will give it their good word, but they are willing to part with it, and cannot be bound to it, for fear of marring their own inheritance in this world. The right was resigned to Boaz. Fair and open dealing in all matters of contract and trade, is what all must make conscience of, who would approve themselves true Israelites, without guile. Honesty will be found the best policy....

Verse Ruth 4:2. _HE TOOK TEN MEN_] Probably it required this number to constitute a court. How simple and how rational was this proceeding! 1. The man who had a suit went to the city gates. 2. Here he stopped till the person with whom he had the suit came to the gate on his way to his work. 3. He called him by name, and he stopped and sat down. 4. Then ten elders were called, and they came and sat down. 5. When all this was done, the appellant preferred his suit. 6. Then the appellee returned his answer. 7. When the elders heard the case, and the response of the appellee, they pronounced judgment, which judgment was always according to the _custom_ of the place. 8. When this was done, the people who happened to be present witnessed the issue. And thus the business was settled without lawyers or legal casuistry. A questio

Every city was governed by elders (see Deuteronomy 19:12; Judges 8:14). For the number “ten,” compare Exodus 18:25. Probably the presence of, at least, ten elders was necessary to make a lawful public assembly, as among modern Jews ten (a minyon) are necessary to constitute a synagogue....

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 HE TOOK TEN MEN OF THE ELDERS OF THE CITY,.... Who were such, not merely in age but in office, who were the heads of thousands, fifties, and tens; ten of whom were a quorum to do business in judiciary affairs, to determine such matters as Boaz had propose, as to whom the right of redemption of a brother and kinsman's widow, and her estate, belonged, and who were the proper witnesses of the refusal of the one to do it, and of the other's doing it and from hence the Jews e gather, that the blessing of the bride and bridegroom at their marriage is not to be done by less than ten persons: AND SAID, SIT DOWN HERE, AND THEY SAT DOWN; and so made a full court. e Misnah Megillah, c. 4. sect. 3. T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 7. 1. Midrash Ruth, fol. 35. 1....

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

_the elders_ possessed magisterial authority, and could be summoned to deal not only with criminal charges (Deuteronomy 19:12; Deuteronomy 21:2-4; 1 Kings 21:8 ff.), but with cases affecting the rights of a family (Deuteronomy 25:7-9)....

TEN MEN— This number of witnesses, it seems, was necessary for the ratification of marriages, divorces, and the conveyance of right and property. See More Nevoch. pars 3: cap. 49: and Bertram de Rep. Jud. cap. 9: Boaz, in representing the distress to which Naomi, the sister of their _brother, 1:_e. their _common relation,_ found herself reduced after her return from Moab, tells the kinsman, that, in order to supply her present necessities, she designed to sell the parcel of land which belonged to Elimelech; and that she had a right to do so, in such a state of necessity, is supposed by the best writers on this subject. See Selden de Success. in Bonis, cap. 15: p. 52....