Ruth 4:5

_THEN SAID BOAZ, WHAT DAY THOU BUYEST THE FIELD OF THE HAND OF NAOMI, THOU MUST BUY IT ALSO OF RUTH THE MOABITESS, THE WIFE OF THE DEAD, TO RAISE UP THE NAME OF THE DEAD UPON HIS INHERITANCE._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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 4:5. _THOU MUST BUY_ IT _ALSO OF RUTH_] More properly, _Thou wilt_ _also acquire Ruth_. Thou canst not get the land without taking the wife of the deceased and then the children which thou mayest have shall be reputed the children of Mahlon, thy deceased kinsman....

Observe the action of the Levirate law. If there had been no one interested but Naomi, she would have sold the land unclogged by any condition, the law of Levirate having no existence in her case. But there was a young widow upon whom the possession of the land would devolve at Naomi’s death, and who already had a right of partnership in it, and the law of Levirate did apply in her case. It was, therefore, the duty of the גאל _gā'al_ to marry her and raise up seed to his brother, i. e. his kinsman. And he could not exercise his right of redeeming the land, unless he was willing at the same time to fulfill his obligations to the deceased by marrying the widow. This he was unwilling to do....

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

THEN SAID BOAZ,.... In order to try the kinsman, whether he would abide by his resolution, he acquaints him with what he had as yet concealed: WHAT DAY THOU BUYEST THE FIELD OF NAOMI, THOU MUST BUY IT ALSO OF RUTH THE MOABITESS, THE WIFE OF THE DEAD; the wife of Mahlon, who was dead, the eldest son of Naomi, and so his widow, Ruth the Moabitess, had the reversion of the estate; wherefore the purchase must be made of her as well as of Naomi, and the purchase could not be made of her without marrying her; which, though no law obliged to, yet it seems to be a condition of the purchase annexed to it by Naomi, that she would sell it to no man, unless he would consent to marry Ruth, for whose settlement she had a great concern, having been very dutiful and affectionate to her; which is clearly intimated in the next clause: TO RAISE UP THE NAME OF THE DEAD UPON HIS INHERITANCE; and so Naomi h...

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

_thou must buy it also of Ruth_ The text is certainly wrong, for it gives a misleading sense; with a small change read as in Ruth 4:10, RUTH ALSO THOU MUST BUY, with Vulg., Pesh.; the LXX. gives both translations! Rendered strictly the whole sentence runs -What day thou buyest … thou wilt have bought (perf.) Ruth also"; see Driver, _Tenses_, § 124. In primitive and semi-primitive societies women have no independent rights of their own; they are treated as part of the property of the family to which they belong. Hence -a wife who had been brought into her husband's house by contract and payment of a price to her father was not free by the death of her husband to marry again at will. The right to her hand lay with the nearest heir of the dead" (Robertson Smith, _Encycl. Bibl._, col. 4166). This was the old law in Arabia to the time of Mohammed, and that it prevailed with some mod

THOU MUST BUY IT ALSO OF RUTH— This whole speech is rendered very confused by the _present printed_ Hebrew text; but if we admit of some alteration from the best manuscripts, the passage will be cleared from obscurity, and when corrected will run thus: Ruth 4:4. _If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it; but if thou wilt not redeem it, tell me, that I may know; for there is none but thee to redeem it, except myself, who am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it,_ Ruth 4:5. _Then said Boaz, on the day thou takest the land of the hand of Naomi, thou must also take Ruth the Moabitess._ See Kennicott's Dissert. vol. 1: p. 447 and Houbigant, who has made the same observation....