Ruth 4:4-6

International Standard Version

⁴ So I thought to myself I ought to tell you that you must make a public purchase of this before the town residents and the elders of my people. So if you intend to act as the related redeemer, then do so.^[a] But if not, let me know, because except for you—and I after you—there is no one to fulfill the duties of a related redeemer.”

The man responded, “I will act as related redeemer.”

A Complication Arises and is Resolved

⁵ Boaz continued, “On the very day you obtain the field from Naomi,^[b] I’ll be obtaining^[c] Ruth the Moabite woman, the widow of the late heir,^[d] so the family name may be continued^[e] as an inheritance.”

⁶ At this, the nearer related redeemer replied, “Then I am unable to act as related redeemer, because that would complicate my own inheritance. You act instead as the related redeemer, because I cannot do so.”^[f]