Ruth 4

Boaz acquires the land and marries Ruth

¹Meanwhile Boaz had gone up to the town gate and taken a seat there. Just then the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz called to him, “Come over here and sit down, Mr. So-and-so.” So the man came over and sat down. ²Then Boaz took ten men from the elders of the town and said, “Please sit down here.” And they sat down. ³Then he said to the family redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is putting up for sale the plot of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.^{a 4}I thought I should tell you about it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and of the elders of my people.’ If you are willing to redeem it, then do so. If you are not, tell me, so that I know. For no one has the right to redeem it except you, and I come next after you.” “I will redeem it,” he said.^{b 5}Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi, and from Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, you acquire Ruth as well, to keep the dead man’s name alive on his inheritance.”^{c 6}The family redeemer replied, “Then I cannot redeem it for myself, or I would ruin my own inheritance. You take over my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” ⁷In earlier times in Israel, this was how redemption and exchange were made final: one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was how an agreement was witnessed in Israel. ⁸So when the family redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he took off his sandal. ⁹Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I am acquiring from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and everything that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, to be my wife, so that the dead man’s name may be kept alive on his inheritance and not be cut off from among his relatives or from the gate of his hometown. Today you are witnesses.” ¹¹All the people at the gate and the elders answered, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, the two women who built up the family of Israel. May you thrive in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem. ¹²Through the children the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like the family of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah.” ¹³So Boaz took Ruth home, and she became his wife. He slept with her, and the LORD let her conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴The women said to Naomi, “Praise the LORD, who has not left you this day without a family redeemer! May his name be renowned in Israel.^{d 15}He will renew your life and take care of you when you are old. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and means more to you than seven sons, is the one who has given birth to him.” ¹⁶Then Naomi took the child, laid him on her lap, and cared for him. ¹⁷The women who lived nearby gave him a name. “Naomi has a son!” they said, and they called him Obed. He became the father of Jesse, David’s father.

The family line from Perez to David

¹⁸These are the descendants of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron. ¹⁹Hezron fathered Ram, and Ram fathered Amminadab. ²⁰Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon. ²¹Salmon fathered Boaz, and Boaz fathered Obed. ²²Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.