Ruth 4:1-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Marriage of Boaz and Ruth
4 No sooner had Boaz gone up to the gate and sat down there than the next-of-kin[a] of whom Boaz had spoken came passing by. So Boaz said, “Come over;[b] sit down here.” And he went over and sat down.(A) 2 Then Boaz took ten men of the elders of the town and said, “Sit down here,” so they sat down. 3 He then said to the next-of-kin,[c] “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our kinsman Elimelech.(B) 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[d] will not, tell me, so that I may know; for there is no one prior to you to redeem it, and I come after you.” So he said, “I will redeem it.”(C) 5 Then Boaz said, “The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth[e] the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.”(D) 6 At this, the next-of-kin[f] said, “I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”(E)
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