"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
Boaz called the people to witness that he had bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi, and that he had purchased Ruth to be his wife. As an illustration, in type, of our great Kinsman-Redeemer, Boaz foreshadows in his action the fulness of the redemption wrought by Christ and the com- pleteness of the purchase He made, in the death He died and the price He paid in His own blood. In this connection, we should note that it was not merely the inheritance, but also the person of Ruth that was bought. We may recall how Paul speaks in Eph- esians 1:14 of 'the redemption of the purchased possession', and in 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 of the fact that 'ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price'.
It is interesting to note the terms in which the people prayed for blessing upon Boaz and Ruth, in 11. This may have been the common and accepted way of expressing it, but they spoke more truly than they knew, because this union that had been brought about was one destined to be very important and significant in the history of the divine redemption. This is the point of the brief genealogy in 13ff, as it traces Boaz's ancestry from Pharez, the son of Judah, son of Jacob. Ruth was thus incorporated into the royal line of promise, which brought forth in the fulness of the time David's greater Son, Jesus. Both she and Boaz appear in this royal line as those that were obedient to the will and purpose of God, Ruth putting personal considerations aside and maintaining family loy- alty, Boaz accepting the obligation of the law and becoming her near-kinsman. They were of course by this time in love with each other; and when romance comes hand in hand with obedience to the will of God, it is one of the many things that God adds to the lives of those who seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.