"1 Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. 2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. 3 Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” 5 Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” 6 Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”
7 Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. 8 So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal. 9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.” 11 Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, 12 and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”
Ruth 4:1-12
This is a very interesting and fascinating passage from a technical point of view, apart from its spiritual lessons, for it affords us evidence of how legal matters were en- tered into and dealt with in ancient Israel. The meeting at the gate (1), and the calling of the elders and the people (9) to be witnesses, and the form of attestation (7, 8), are all legal categories belonging to the time. The gate of the city was the public meeting-place where legal and business transactions were carried through, the elders acting, so to speak, as judges. And on this occasion they assumed the responsibility that was theirs, and proceeded to adjudicate on the case that Boaz brought before them. More signifi- cant than the technical matter, however, is the spiritual significance of the law of levirate marriage, which we discussed in a previous Note on ch 3, and by which a widow as of right could appeal to the elders of the gate for justice and recognition, and the kinsman required by law both to redeem any land that was sold, to keep it in the family, and also to raise up seed in memory of the dead husband. At first, the kinsmen who was nearer of kin to Naomi than Boaz was quite willing to redeem the field - it would be an invest- ment for him, after all (4); but when Boaz proceeds to the next point, viz. that marrying Ruth was also involved he very swiftly retracted, for fear of marring his own inheritance (6), and refused his duty. Now the law was quite clear: it was his duty at nearest kinsman to fulfil this obligation; and in refusing to do so, he was dishonouring the law of God. We shall look at lessons in this in the next Note.