Again, despite the brevity of this tale, it requires a fair amount of explanation and raises some questions. Note first of all that the reference to handing over the sandal as an archaic custom establishes that this was written a long time after the events purportedly occurred. This is consistent with scholarly opinion, as I noted at the beginning. The question arises, why was it written and where does the story come from? Was it an invention of the writer(s), or did it have an earlier source?
I suspect that it derives from oral tradition. Remember that the vast majority of people were illiterate. In preliterate societies story telling is a form of entertainment, and of religious instruction, and is the only way of preserving historical memory. So much of the Bible originated in oral tradition. (Of what we have read so far, Deuteronomy is definitely an exception. It recapitulates much of the earlier tradition but was crafted with clear intention.) The story of Ruth may have originally been told within the family, to inform Obed of his origins, and told within the community as interesting local news and then history. This story would have been a favorite of women, and of converts or mixed families, and so it would have continued to be told. Of course it was likely embellished and changed along the way. The Genealogy of David at the end was clearly appended later, perhaps at the time this was first written down.
To further explain the legal issues, Naomi can only hold her inheritance until a male heir emerges. Boaz, by marrying Ruth, stands in for her late son Mahlon and so becomes the heir of Namoi's late husband. That he has to pay for the property is a twist we don't see in Deuteronomy. Some sources say that Naomi was allowed to mortgage the property to fend off poverty, in which case the money would be to redeem the mortgage. But the plain language implies that she gets the cash herself, which makes sense I suppose since she's a widow otherwise without means of support, although she does become part of the Boaz household. Why the unnamed kinsman would jeopardize his own inheritance by marrying Ruth is not explained.
In any event, Obed is technically Naomi's grandson, as Boaz symbolically replaces her son. She probably would have thought of him as a grandson anyway, as Ruth has become like a daughter to her, but the preservation of Elimelech's line as one outcome of this transaction is a point of emphasis. Note that in the genealogy of David, only the male line matters.
4 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer[a] he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3 Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you[b] will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
“I will redeem it,” he said.
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the[c] dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”
11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
Naomi Gains a Son
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
The Genealogy of David
18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:
Perez was the father of Hezron,
19 Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,[d]
21 Salmon the father of Boaz,
Boaz the father of Obed,
22 Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David.
Footnotes
- Ruth 4:1 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55); also in verses 3, 6, 8 and 14.
- Ruth 4:4 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts he
- Ruth 4:5 Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew (see also Septuagint) Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you acquire the
- Ruth 4:20 A few Hebrew manuscripts, some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate (see also verse 21 and Septuagint of 1 Chron. 2:11); most Hebrew manuscripts Salma
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