seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Ruth 4:1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3 Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
“I will redeem it,” he said.
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”
11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
Here's that commentary I use.
Boaz went up to the gate: The gate of the city was always the place where the esteemed and honorable men of the city sat. For an ancient city in Israel it was a combination of a city council chamber and a courtroom.
The city gate was “A kind of outdoor court, the place were judicial matters were resolved by the elders and those who had earned the confidence and respect of the people... a place for business and as a kind of forum or public meeting place.” (Huey)
Come aside, friend, sit down here: Literally, in the ancient Hebrew, when Boaz greeted the nearer kinsman he called him “Mr. So-and-so.” The writer of Ruth never identified the name of the nearer kinsman because he was not worthy of the honor. He declined to fulfill his obligations as the nearer kinsman to Ruth.
“Doubtless Boaz both knew his name, and called him by it; but it is omitted by the holy writer, partly because it was unnecessary to know it; and principally in way of contempt, as is usual, and a just punishment upon him, that he who would not preserve his brother’s name might lose his own, and lie buried in the grave of perpetual oblivion.” (Poole)
It was the custom in former times in Israel: Deuteronomy 25:5-10 describes the ceremony conducted when a kinsman declined his responsibility. The one declining removed a sandal and the woman he declined to honor spat in his face. But in this case, because there was not a lack of honor involved, they just did the part of the ceremony involving the sandal.
Can't you just see Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh playing the part of Boaz and Ruth? Can't you just see Jack Klugman playing the "redeemer" that turned Ruth down?I encourage you to click on the Deuteronomy link to spitting in the face of the guy who turned down his duty. I can see Leigh smacking Klugman and saying... "that's what you did to Elimelek". Can't you just see Klugman taking off his sandal and saying something like "Frankly, my dear, I don't care about Elimelek or his children".
Why do you think that "Redeemer" turned down the property and Ruth? He was willing to keep the property. He just didn't want the Moabite woman and her children who went with it. Didn't he want to raise children with the name of Elimelek? Didn't he want Naomi as the grandmother of Ruth's babies?
At any rate, it occurs to me, that character who turned Ruth down, actually turned down the whole clan. The idea behind the "redeemer" was to keep the twelve clans vital and alive".
Women were a commodity. They were bought, sold, and/or exchanged at the city gate. Their lot was secured by the passing of a dirty old sandal. No one would take in a widow because they would have to care for children who did not bear their name. I guess it was like taking in someone else's livestock but leaving their brand on the livestock.
At any rate,
Boaz got the girl!
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