Ruth 4:3-5
Evangelical Heritage Version
3 Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who returned from the territory of Moab, is putting up for sale[a] the piece of land that belongs to our brother Elimelek. 4 On my part, I thought I should call it to your attention so that you may acquire it in the presence of these residents and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you wish to redeem it, redeem it. But if you do not wish to redeem it, declare that to me. I know that there is no one ahead of you in the right to redeem, but I am right after you.”
So the man said, “Yes, I will redeem it.”
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day that you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, I will acquire[b] from Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the deceased, the means to perpetuate the name of the deceased on his inheritance.”
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- Ruth 4:3 It is uncertain what the exact nature of this sale is since land in Israel could not be sold in perpetuity but could only be leased until the next Year of Jubilee. Naomi may, in effect, be leasing the right to use the land to the person who redeemed it.
- Ruth 4:5 The reading I will acquire is the reading from the main Hebrew text. Many translations follow the Hebrew reading from the margin (qere) you must acquire. This second reading also has good support in the ancient versions, but the redeemer of land had no legal obligation to serve as a levir, a brother-in-law who married his brother’s widow in order to provide an heir for him. The threat that Boaz holds over the man is not that if the man takes the land, he must also marry Ruth, but that if the man takes the land, Boaz will marry Ruth, and their first son will get the land. Boaz treats acquiring the land and marrying Ruth as two separate transactions.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.