We’ve just finished Ruth 3 where Ruth and Naomi have received an assurance from Boaz that one way or another, he’ll guarantee that Naomi would have an heir to carry on her husband’s name. Of course, we’re rooting for Boaz to be the one who marries Ruth. But there’s a closer kinsman that Boaz has to clear this with first. So now we’re sitting on the edge of our seats to see how this meeting with the closer kinsman and the elders in the city gate turns out!
4:1 Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.
In the ancient Middle East, the city gate was the equivalent of the town square – it was where everything important happened.
It was where business was done, contracts were formalized, Abraham bought a burial plot in the city gates, it was the hub of concourse.
That’s where the elders of the city sat to settle disputes, where magistrates judged, where people gathered for information.
If you wanted to meet somebody, you sat in the city gate because sooner or later, that was where everyone would come through.
And in the New Testament, Jesus said, I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved. Jesus is where the judgment is made, where we get the important information we need for life, where we meet those who are true citizens of the kingdom.
Boaz went up to the gate, since the town was uphill from the threshing floor (3:3). He no sooner takes up his position to lookout for the nearer kinsman than, behold, he providentially shows right up – it’s looking like God is really in this!
He calls out to the man, and the Hebrew word translated, such a one, is the author’s substitute for the name that Boaz used – something like how we might refer to someone as a “So-and-So” if we’re wanting to leave their name out. So Boaz himself didn’t literally call his kinsman, “Hey Such-a-One, come here for a moment!” Boaz knew the man’s name and used it. But the writer of this book, for whatever reason, chose not to record the man’s name for all time. He substituted the phrase such a one to retain his anonymity. And that’s interesting, because Boaz did right by his kinsman and is forever remembered. The one who didn’t is forever forgotten.
And in Revelation 3:5, Jesus says of His people, they shall be clothed in white raiment [like wedding garments], and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. At the end of time, all the saved will have new names by which they are known to God and the angels for eternity, while the lost are blotted out and remain Nameless Ones forever.
2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down.
This is the passage that Jewish rabbis would later use to determine that ten was the minimum number for a minyan, a quorum to meet as a synagogue.
Just hours earlier, Boaz had awakened in the middle of the night to find Ruth sleeping under the covers at his feet.
Some have suggested that Naomi was actually trying to use Ruth to entice Boaz into consummating a deal to be their Goel under the cover of darkness. But we can see now that Boaz is dealing with this in the full light of day.
3 And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's:
Just to review, the word Kinsman here is the Hebrew word “Goel”, a special title that we commonly call a “Kinsman Redeemer”. It was the family member who had the legal right to either buy back a poor relative’s pawned property, or to redeem the relative himself from debtor’s slavery, or to avenge a murdered relative by hunting down and executing his killer, or, as custom had come to dictate by the time of this story, to marry the widow of a relative who had no brothers to marry her and give her a child to inherit the dead brother’s estate and care for the aging widow.
The Kinsman Redeemer would need to have the means to redeem his kinsman. A poor uncle who was no better off would have to defer to a cousin who had the wealth to buy back the property. And if there were no closer heirs to save the property, it could become a part of the redeemer’s heritage for all generations – so there was an economic incentive in some cases for a near kinsman to perform this duty.
Of course, all of this was a picture of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who was born into the human race through the Virgin Mary in order to become the ultimate Eldest Brother to us all – the nearest Kinsman in a position to redeem anyone who would appeal to Him from debtor’s bondage to sin, from our lost inheritance over this world, to avenge us upon the devil, and to become a part of His Church, the Bride of Christ.
When he says that she selleth a parcel of land, he means that it was done in the past. Naomi could not own the land now, for no land owner would have a right to glean in another’s field as Naomi has been doing through her daughter in law.
Elimelech had obviously fallen on hard times and sold it before they ever left for Moab over 10 years earlier. He speaks of Naomi as having done it figuratively through her husband because she is the person at issue in this case. In reality, Naomi was a widow, and there was no Mosaic provision for widows to inherit property. The heir would always be a descendent who would care for the widow, or (as in this case) a near kinsman.
So in the next verse when Boaz talks about buying the property, he doesn’t mean to buy it from Naomi. He means to buy it back from whoever Elimelech once sold it to for Naomi – to return it to her. That’s what Kinsman Redeemers did – they restored property to whatever poor relative had sold it off. Leviticus 25:25 explains this saying, If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
When he calls Elimelech our brother, he uses the same word used in Leviticus. It could mean an actual sibling, a relative, or even a friend that is as close as a brother. In this case, it’s understood to be a relative.
4 And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
When he says I thought to advertise thee, it becomes clear that the other kinsman had not previously been aware that he was in a position to redeem Naomi’s property. This demonstrates Boaz’ integrity. He could have bypassed the unsuspecting nearer kinsman and gotten the property and the girl all to himself without any risk or hassle. A great test of one’s character is what he will do when he thinks he can get away with it.
He says, buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders – the 10 elders which he had assembled in verse 2. The inhabitants are apparently the crowd of curious villagers that have gathered around at the prospect of something happening that was so important it required the attention of so many elders.
Boaz offers to let the nearer kinsman buy back Naomi’s property. Again, Leviticus 25:27 says, let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
To understand what he means, you have to understand the Jewish year of Jubilee, which is also introduced in Leviticus 25. The Jews counted years by sevens – seven years made a sabbatical. After seven sabbaticals, or 49 years, there followed the fiftieth year called the Jubilee. During the year of Jubilee, all debts were wiped clean. Any property sold off by a desperate landowner was returned to him or to his heirs. Anyone in bondage for debt was released. It was like every 50 years, the Monopoly board was cleared and the game started over with a fresh start for everyone.
So when someone sold their property to another, it was understood that when the year of Jubilee came, that property would return to the seller free and clear. That meant that the closer the year of Jubilee was, the fewer years a buyer would have to use the land, and so the less he paid for it. The farther away the Jubilee was, the longer he would have to use it, and the more he would pay for it. Each year the land’s value would deflate by one-fiftieth – deflation rather than inflation.
So some ten years earlier, Elimelech would have sold his property during a famine and taken the proceeds to set his family up in Moab. Now his widow returns empty handed. She cannot redeem the family inheritance. Of course, whenever the Jubilee comes round again, it will revert to her heirs if she has any, but in the meantime, she is destitute.
Boaz and the nearer kinsman are discussing the repurchase of Naomi’s property. One of them will buy it back from the new owner for whatever Elimelech sold it for minus ten years worth of deflation. That’s what Leviticus 25:27 is talking about when it says, let him count the years of the sale thereof (how many years until the Jubilee that it’s being sold for), and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it (refund to the man who bought it, back when your kinsman was in a jam, the overplus, the value for the remaining years to the Jubilee that he originally paid for and that the redeemer is now reclaiming) that he (the poor brother) may return unto his possession.
Now one may reasonably wonder, why would a Kinsman Redeemer go to the expense of paying off a relative’s debts. The property is going back to the poor relative – so what does the redeemer stand to get out of it?
One possibility is that the poor brother could work off the debt under better arrangements with his kinsman that he was bound to do under a stranger. But since all the men are dead in this case, that won’t happen.
Another possibility, which looms large in this chapter, is that the poor brother might have no heirs to inherit the property, and then the nearer kinsman could retain the property as a part of his inheritance forever.
But still another possibility, which also looms large here, is for no other reason than selfless, sacrificial compassion – love. The nearer kinsman that Boaz is talking to sees a widow with no heir, and he thinks he might get to keep Elimelech’s property in his own family forever. But Boaz is willing to raise up an heir through Ruth who will inherit Elimelech’s redeemed estate and care for the aging widows.
What a picture of Christ, our Elder Brother, the ultimate Near Kinsman, Who does not require us to work off an impossible debt, Who does not redeem us from sin for anything that He can profit off of us, but Who gave Himself freely to buy back our souls from sin and damnation for no other reason than love!
In order to redeem anything, the Kinsman Redeemer would obviously have to have enough for the purchase. All the love in the world would be meaningless if in the end he just couldn’t pay the bill. And Jesus is the only Kinsman the human race ever had Who possessed enough righteousness to pay for our sins. II Corinthians 5:21 says, he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
When this unnamed nearer kinsman walked into town this morning, he had no idea that a windfall like this was about to land in his lap. Of course, everyone in town knew that poor Naomi had returned from ten years in Moab completely destitute. They knew that the family had sold the farm a decade earlier when they skipped town during a famine and ran off across the Jordan River to the land of Israel’s enemies. But this nearer kinsman had apparently been unaware that he stood first in line to redeem the property that Naomi’s deceased husband, Elimelech, had sold before he left. Now with Boaz bringing it to light before the elders of the city and a host of surrounding villagers as witnesses, he feels like this is his lucky day!
Why? Because everyone knew that Naomi had returned childless. Her husband had died. Her sons had died. Naomi had no heir to pass the property on to. It was the perfect set up for a near kinsman to redeem another’s property that would never pass on to anyone else. The property of Elimelech would become joined with his own estate and be passed down to his heirs forever. Opportunities like this were rare. So when Boaz says, If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it, this guy doesn’t even have to think twice about it – he immediately says, I will redeem it!
But have you ever been presented with an opportunity that just sounded too good to be true? You thought to yourself, “Okay, there’s got to be a catch here somewhere, right?” Well now in verse 5, Boaz springs the catch:
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.
What does Boaz mean when he says that the redeeming kinsman will buy the field of the hand of Naomi? Didn’t Naomi’s family already sell the land to another years ago? Won’t the redeemer really be buying the field at the hand of this newer owner?
Well, yes that’s true. But in a secondhand sense, by reimbursing the current owner what he paid to Naomi’s family, the ownership of what is ultimately Naomi’s property (her heir’s) is transferred to the redeemer, and the money for it that passed into Naomi’s hands years earlier is reimbursed to the current owner. So by transference he is buying what began as Naomi’s (husband’s) property, and will eventually return to being Naomi’s (heir’s) property. He is paying money that, through a domino of exchanges, satisfies what originally went into Naomi’s hand – or that of her family which Naomi now represents.
But now Boaz introduces a wrinkle. Naomi is not the only one involved in this. There is also her son’s widow, Ruth, who becomes a part of the Kinsman Redeemer’s responsibility as well. And the key responsibility to her is to marry her and provide an heir that will continue the line of Mahlon, the son of Elimelech.
Immediately, the nearer kinsman sees that there’s some fine print here:
He’s going to shell out all this money to redeem some property that’s going to another man’s heir – an heir that doesn’t even exist yet, but that he is going to be expected to provide to this dead man’s widow.
Wait a minute – he didn’t mind paying the money when he thought he’d get the heirless estate. But paying all of that for a child that won’t even be considered his own? Now that’s a different story! As soon as he understands that little clause, the whole deal is a “no-go”!
And that, of course, meant that he was out of the whole thing. If you accepted the responsibility of the nearest kinsman in one respect, then you were the nearest kinsman in every respect – you couldn’t pick and choose. Either you were the nearest kinsman able to redeem another or you weren’t. By refusing the role of Kinsman Redeemer for Ruth, he had to forfeit it for Naomi as well.
The nearer kinsman was only interested in redeeming his relative if it would profit him. He was not interested in making the sacrifices that would be demanded by a marriage to Ruth. I’ll give him credit for one thing – he did get the fact that marriage is more about sacrificial service than it is self-fulfillment. The nearer kinsman’s unwillingness to sacrifice highlights the love and integrity of Boaz who was willing.
And by the way, notice one more thing. The nearer kinsman avoided having a child by Ruth for economic reasons, and there are many Christians today who avoid having children for the same reasons. But the very first command that God gave our race was be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.
6 And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.
He said it would mar his own inheritance if he redeemed it. What he meant was that the money he would shell out to redeem Naomi’s property would siphon off value from his own estate for which he would never be reimbursed if another inherited it.
Twice in the same verse he says I cannot redeem it. But when Boaz first mentioned it back in verse 4, the man’s knee-jerk reaction was, I will redeem it! He was able to then – and very willing. So what has changed since then? Is he really no longer able, or just no longer willing?
You know, many times people will disguise their unwillingness to help another as an inability. People don’t feel guilty for what they cannot do in same the way that they feel for what they will not do.
But for Boaz, who is motivated by love, this is not an issue. He is both able and willing, and this response from the nearer kinsman was undoubtedly what he was hoping to hear.
We mentioned earlier that it would have been easier for him to have just taken care of all this in the first place without ever involving the other kinsman. But Boaz has dealt honestly, willing to leave the result in God’s hands despite his own desire – and his trusting obedience is now vindicated.
7 Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor: and this was a testimony in Israel.
Here the writer talks about a former time when Israel had strange customs that the writer’s generation would need to have explained.
We mentioned back in the beginning of our study that the Jewish rabbis believed that Samuel wrote the book of Ruth. They based that on the fact that the genealogy at the end of this chapter stops with David. So it would have been a writer who lived to see David, but not his son Solomon.
Samuel is certainly a reasonable guess, but if not him, then the same reasoning argues for someone of his generation, someone living near the end of the times of the judges.
The particular custom that he explains involves the removing of a shoe to formalize either redeeming or changing – the redeeming of a property by paying it off, or the changing of who the redeemer will be – as when a nearer kinsman forfeits his right to redeem something.
Now someone familiar with the laws of Levirate marriage may notice a similarity between this and the instructions regarding a man who will not take his deceased brother’s widow and beget a child by her. Deuteronomy 25:9-10 says, Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed. Because a shoe is being removed in both cases, one might infer that the custom passing between Boaz and his relative has something to do with this. But while the two situations may have a common origin, they really aren’t the same.
What Deuteronomy describes is a command of God about marrying a widow; what Boaz and his relative are doing is a mere custom that later generations became unfamiliar with.
In Deuteronomy, the brother is disobeying an order; but in the book of Ruth, the redemption of a kinsman was optional – as in this very case where the nearer kinsman is opting out.
In Deuteronomy, the wronged widow takes the shoe from the brother in law; in Boaz’ case, the relative removes his own shoe.
What Boaz’ relative does is not a source of perpetual shame, but in Deuteronomy, the widow spits in the brother’s face, and his name is forever changed to reflect his disgrace.
And the symbolism behind these acts seems different as well. In those days, servants went barefoot. So when a cheated widow removes her brother in law’s shoe, she is shaming him to the level of a servant.
But Boaz’ relative removes his shoe and passes it to Boaz to symbolize that he transfers the right to step on the land being redeemed to Boaz. (One would assume that after all was settled, Boaz hands him his shoe back!)
The point is that Boaz and his relative are doing everything legally according to the custom of their time. They are acting above board and in the full sight of the local townsmen and elders. And now Boaz is prepared to redeem Naomi, Ruth and the lineage, name and property of Elimelech – and he will do it sacrificially out of love.
Just like Jesus sacrificially redeemed Adam’s race for no other reason than love.
8 Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe.
Boaz has no problem paying money for a property that will not stay in his family because he admires Ruth for several reasons.
Ever since he first met her, she has been a diligent woman with high moral character – from a land not really known for morals that were all that high.
She has shown love and loyalty to her poor mother in law, Naomi.
Ruth herself is forfeiting marriage with a younger man, and wedding Boaz who is old enough to be her father for the sole purpose of producing an heir to carry on the lineage of Naomi’s late husband – an heir that will provide for Naomi in her old age.
Everything that Ruth is doing is out of a sacrificial love for Naomi whom she puts first in every way. No doubt, part of the reason Boaz is cooperating with this is out of compassion for his rather distant kinswoman Naomi, but having a wife with such a golden heart as Ruth is certainly raising his motivation above the level of mere duty!
9 And 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.
Elimelech was Naomi’s deceased husband. Chilion and Mahlon were their two deceased sons. These boys had married Moabite women (Mahlon had been the husband of Ruth), but neither had ever produced an heir, which created this problem that Boaz and Ruth are now trying to solve.
Remember that in their culture, widows did not inherit property. It went to the children if there were any, or to the nearest blood kin if there weren’t.
Naomi is too old to produce an heir herself. But Ruth is young, and as the widow of Naomi’s son Mahlon, she could have a child by the nearest kinsman on Mahlon’s behalf. Elimelech’s estate could then pass through Mahlon to his legal heir by Ruth and this near kinsman, Boaz.
So that’s what this whole scenario is about – raising up a grandson to Elimelech who will inherit his name and lands and care for Elimelech’s aging widow and the child’s own legal grandmother, Naomi.
Boaz has all ten of the city elders and a crowd of local citizens observing all of this, and he says to them, Ye are witnesses this day that I have legally bought the land.
He says that he’s buying it of the hand of Naomi, not that she actually had any legal claim to the land herself. He isn’t literally buying the land from her. A decade earlier, Elimelech and Naomi had essentially pawned the land to someone else to raise money for their move to Moab as they tried to escape a famine in Bethlehem where this is all now happening. Boaz is paying off the land loan to get it out of hock and restore it to Naomi and her anticipated heir. So while Naomi will not literally own the land, she’ll have a sort of “right of possession” to use it like an owner on behalf of the child to be born.
And that’s what Boaz now addresses in verse 10, where he says:
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.
Boaz acknowledges that the firstborn heir will not be legally his own, but that he’s doing this to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
He calls Mahlon’s wife, Ruth the Moabitess. Deuteronomy 23:3 had said that, An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever. The phrase to their tenth generation is an expression similar to how we would now say, “to the umpteenth generation.” It doesn’t literally mean that you stop at ten any more than Jesus meant that you quit forgiving people after seven times seventy apologies. What Moses meant was that Ammonites and Moabites would never enter the congregation of the Lord as the last phrase in this verse makes clear – even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever.
And that was how the ancient Jews applied it. Centuries later, long after ten generations had run out many times over, Ezra 9:1-2 says that the Jews had not separated themselves from the people of the lands. Then it lists among others, the Ammonites and the Moabites, and verse 2 says that they had not separated themselves: For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.
Centuries after any 10-generation deadline, the Jews were intermarrying with, among other groups, Moabites – and Ezra called this a trespass, because the prohibition was really understood to last forever.
So the law stood to curse Ruth to be perpetually excluded from the holy nation. And yet, Ruth’s story ends with her marrying Boaz, being blessed with the long-awaited child, becoming the great grandmother of the legendary King David, and even becoming an ancestress of the Messiah Himself! How in the world do we explain this? There’s only one word that can account for this “happily ever after” kind of ending: grace! Remember back in Ruth 2:2, there was a morning shortly after Ruth and Naomi had moved back into Bethlehem that Ruth had said to her mother-in-law, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. She went out that morning looking for grace, and she found more of it than her wildest imaginations could have ever dreamed.
And how did she find that grace? Again, in Ruth 2:12 we read that she had come to trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel. And anyone, from the days of Adam unto the end of the world... anyone who comes to trust in the Lord God of Israel will always find more grace than he knows what to do with! More grace than this lifetime can possibly enjoy! So much grace that it’ll take all eternity to fathom.
When I look at Ruth’s situation and what God did for her, I can’t help but think of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2. After talking in verse 8 about being saved by grace through faith, he says beginning in verse 11:
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh... That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And then he elaborates on that for several verses, but in verse 19 he concludes: Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.
Like Ruth, we had all been outcasts from the heavenly Zion. But everyone who seeks His grace by faith also ends up feasting at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom. Ruth, the once cursed Moabitess, is a beautiful picture of us all!
You know, we were all under the curse of Adam’s fall. We all needed a Kinsman to redeem us. And when we turn to Christ, our lives all go from barren to fruitful – the fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of our salvation.
So, have you come to Him yet? If not, then wherever you are, why not just call out to God something like this:
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner; I believe Christ died for my sins on the cross; I believe He rose to give me victory over death; I trust His sacrifice to pay for my pardon; I repent of my sins; I receive Your forgiveness by faith. I trust Your grace to deliver my soul on the judgment day – Amen!
