Ruth 4:5

Rth 4:5 Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy [it] also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.

Ver. 5. What day thou buyest the field.] Here God is making provision for these two widows, his clients; maintenance for Naomi, and marriage for Ruth. Henceforth it shall be no more Marah, but, as heretofore, Naomi: and while Orpah lacked bread in her own country, Ruth is grown a great lady in Israel. "Who would not serve thee, O King of Nations?" &c.

To raise up the name of the dead.] This Boaz kept in till now at last; at the hearing whereof, the other relinquisheth his right in the land, since it was so encumbered. It is a witty and pious advice that a grave divine giveth; When thou art making a covenant with sin, saith he, say to thy soul as Boaz did to his kinsman, At what time thou buyest it, thou must have Ruth with it. If thou wilt have the pleasure of sin, the wages of wickedness, thou must also have the curse that is due to it. And let thy soul answer as he there doth, No, I may not do it, I shall mar and spoil a better inheritance.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:5 your purchase . . . requires that you marry Ruth (literally on the day you purchase . . . you acquire Ruth): In the Hebrew manuscripts that we have, the body of this verse reads I acquire, but a scribal correction in the margin reads you acquire, a difference of one letter. (The scribe believed you acquire was the original reading and that the body of the text contained an error.) Some interpreters believe the body of the Hebrew text (I acquire) is the original reading of the text, indicating that the marriage between Boaz and Ruth was already set to occur (see study note on 3:11). Most translators, however, believe that the marginal correction (you acquire) represents the original reading of the text because: (1) The scribe who made the marginal correction believed that you acquire was the original reading; (2) most ancient translations of Ruth, which predate our oldest copies of the Hebrew text, also read you acquire; and (3) it is easy to envision that an earlier Hebrew scribe (working before our earliest manuscript copies) substituted I acquire—as it appears in 4:10—in place of you acquire. • That way she can have children who will carry on her husband’s name and keep the land in the family: This sentence draws heavily on Deut 25:7. Boaz connected the duties of a family redeemer (see study notes on Ruth 2:20; Lev 25:25) with the duties of a brother-in-law (Latin levir) to provide an heir for a deceased brother (see Deut 25:5-10 for a description of levirate marriage; cp. Gen 38). There is no precise precedent for Boaz’s legal maneuver. The duty of the levir as stated in Deut 25:5-10 was not binding in this situation (neither Boaz nor the other kinsman was Elimelech’s brother, and Ruth was not Elimelech’s widow). Boaz was apparently using the spirit of the law concerning the go’el (family redeemer) to establish a moral, if not a legal, obligation to serve as levir and provide the deceased with an heir to inherit the land (see study note on Lev 25:25). The concepts of land ownership and provision for an heir were intimately connected in ancient Israel (cp. Num 27:1-11). Because Naomi was beyond childbearing age, Ruth, the widow of Elimelech’s son, would be the mother for such an heir. This maneuver apparently surprised the other kinsman (Ruth 4:6), but it is clear from what follows that Boaz’s argument, while perhaps novel, was accepted as valid.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That his inheritance might bear his name that is dead.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 5. Thou must buy it also of Ruth] More properly, Thou wilt also acquire Ruth. Thou canst not get the land without taking the wife of the deceased and then the children which thou mayest have shall be reputed the children of Mahlon, thy deceased kinsman.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(5) What day . . .—When the person had been bought out to whom Naomi had sold the land until the year of Jubilee should restore it to her family, there remained Naomi’s own claim on the land, and after wards that of Ruth, as the widow of the son of Elimelech. But further, this last carried with it the necessity of taking Ruth to wife, so that a child might be born to inherit, as the son of Mahlon, Mahlon’s inheritance.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. thou must buy it also of Ruth] The text is certainly wrong, for it gives a misleading sense; with a small change read as in Rth_4:10, Ruth also thou must buy, with Vulg., Pesh.; the LXX. gives both translations! Rendered strictly the whole sentence runs ‘What day thou buyest … thou wilt have bought (perf.) Ruth also’; see Driver, Tenses, § 124.

In primitive and semi-primitive societies women have no independent rights of their own; they are treated as part of the property of the family to which they belong. Hence ‘a wife who had been brought into her husband’s house by contract and payment of a price to her father was not free by the death of her husband to marry again at will. The right to her hand lay with the nearest heir of the dead’ (Robertson Smith, Encycl. Bibl., col. 4166). This was the old law in Arabia to the time of Mohammed, and that it prevailed with some modifications among the ancient Hebrews is shewn by the narrative in Genesis 38. (see on Rth_1:13 above), by the law of levirate marriage in Deu_25:5 ff., and by the present story, which implies that for the nearest kinsman to marry the widow was regarded as an act of compassion. It is important to notice that the law of Deu_25:5 ff, applies only to the case of brothers living together on the same estate; if one dies without a son, the survivor is bound to marry the widow. But neither the Go’el here, nor Boaz, was a brother of Ruth’s late husband; this, therefore, was not a levirate marriage. Again, in the Pentateuch (Leviticus 25.) the Go’el is not required to purchase the widow as well as the land of the dead kinsman, and it is clear that in the present case the Go’el did not consider that he was under an obligation to do so; he agrees to purchase the land (Rth_4:4), but when he is told that this involves the purchase of Ruth, he withdraws his consent. At the same time we gather from his language in Rth_4:6, and from the applause of the people in the gate, that custom admitted the propriety of the double purchase. It was in fact a work of charity, going beyond the strict letter of the law but sanctioned by ancient usage, and thoroughly in keeping with the generous, kindly disposition of Boaz. The writer holds him up as an edifying example.

to raise up the name of the dead] Again the law of levirate marriage furnishes a parallel; the object of such a marriage was ‘to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel’ Deu_25:7, as well as to prevent the estate passing out of the family. To leave behind no name in the community was considered a grave misfortune (cf. Rth_4:10); it meant that the dead was deprived of the reverence and service of posterity (cf. 2Sa_18:18). This feeling may be traced back to the religious instinct which prompted the worship of ancestors.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then said Boaz,.... In order to try the kinsman, whether he would abide by his resolution, he acquaints him with what he had as yet concealed:

what day thou buyest the field of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead; the wife of Mahlon, who was dead, the eldest son of Naomi, and so his widow, Ruth the Moabitess, had the reversion of the estate; wherefore the purchase must be made of her as well as of Naomi, and the purchase could not be made of her without marrying her; which, though no law obliged to, yet it seems to be a condition of the purchase annexed to it by Naomi, that she would sell it to no man, unless he would consent to marry Ruth, for whose settlement she had a great concern, having been very dutiful and affectionate to her; which is clearly intimated in the next clause:

to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance; and so Naomi had another end to answer thereby, not only to provide a good husband for her daughter-in-law, but to perpetuate the name of her son, agreeably to the design of the law in Deu 25:5.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Observe the action of the Levirate law. If there had been no one interested but Naomi, she would have sold the land unclogged by any condition, the law of Levirate having no existence in her case. But there was a young widow upon whom the possession of the land would devolve at Naomi’s death, and who already had a right of partnership in it, and the law of Levirate did apply in her case. It was, therefore, the duty of the גאל gā'al to marry her and raise up seed to his brother, i. e. his kinsman. And he could not exercise his right of redeeming the land, unless he was willing at the same time to fulfill his obligations to the deceased by marrying the widow. This he was unwilling to do.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

When. Hebrew again corruptly, "On the day thou buyest the land of the hand of Noemi, I will also buy it of Ruth," &c. It ought to be, conformably to some manuscripts and the ancient versions, "thou must also take Ruth," ver. 10. (Capel, p. 144, and 362.) (Kennicott) (Haydock) --- We see here the observance of two laws, the one preserving the inheritance in the same family, and the other obliging the next of kin to marry the widow of the deceased, if he would enjoy his land, Leviticus xxv. 10., and Deuteronomy xxv. 5. (Calmet) --- Such widows as designed to comply with this condition, took possession of the land on the death of their husband, and conveyed it to those whom they married, till their eldest son became entitled to it. (Abulensis, q. 30 to 61.) --- Inheritance. The son to be born, would be esteemed the heir of his legal parent. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The wife of the dead; according to the law, Deu 25:5; Mat 22:24, &c.

To raise up the name of the dead; to revive his name, which was lost and buried with his body, by raising up a seed to him, to be called by his name.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Thou must buy it also of Ruth — The estate of Elimelech would have been Chilion and Mahlon’s had they lived. Chilion’s widow had gone to her mother’s house in Moab, and perhaps married again, so that she had no legal claim on the property; but Mahlon’s widow, Ruth, had clung to Naomi, and therefore while she lived had a share with her mother-in-law in Mahlon’s inheritance. Naomi was too old to expect a husband, (Rth_1:12,) or to claim of her deceased husband’s kinsmen the duty of the levirate marriage. But not so Ruth, who was young and beautiful, and had a right to ask in marriage the man who redeemed the inheritance of Mahlon.

To raise up the name of the dead — According to the law (Deu_25:6) the firstborn of the levirate marriage succeeded in the name of the deceased husband of his mother. Thus the family to whom the deceased belonged did not become extinct in Israel. See on Rth_4:10.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Boaz said, In the day when thou acquirest the land from the hand of Naomi, and from Ruth the Moabitess, (in that day) thou hast acquired the wife of the deceased, to establish the name of the deceased upon his inheritance. So we would punctuate and render this verse. Boaz distinctly informed his relative that if the land was acquired at all by a kinsman, it must be acquired with its living appurtenance, Ruth the Moabitess, so that, by the blessing of God, the Fountain of families, there might he the opportunity of retaining the possession of the property in the line of her deceased husband, that line coalescing in the line of her second husband. It was the pleasure of Naomi and Ruth, in offering their property for sale, to burden its acquisition, on the part of a kinsman, with the condition specified. If there should be fruit after the marriage, the child would be heir of the property, just as if he had been Machlon"s son, even though the father should have other and older sons by another wife.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Buy it - According to the law, Deut. xxv, 5. To raise,&c. - To revive his name, which was buried with his body, by raising up a seed to him, to be called by his name.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

On the day that you buy ... you must also

Boaz uses this expression to inform his relative of the additional responsibility he will have if he buys the land.

from the hand of Naomi

Here the word "hand" represents Naomi, who owns the field. AT: "from Naomi" (See: Synecdoche)

you must also take Ruth

"you must also marry Ruth" (See: Idiom)

Ruth ... the widow of a dead man

"Ruth ... the widow of Elimelek's son"

to raise up the name of the dead

"that she may have a son to inherit the property and carry on the name of her dead husband"

damaging my own inheritance

He would have to give some of his own wealth to the children that Ruth might bear.

You take my right of redemption for yourself

"You redeem it yourself" or "You yourself redeem it instead of me"

translationWords

Boaz

Ruth

Moab

name

inherit

kin

redeem

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

and from Ruth the Moabitess you must buy, and she agrees only if you marry her.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

"You have acquired the wife of the deceased." The reason for this phrase is 'you will acquire,' with a past tense verb used for future action. For the woman has a ketubah (marriage contract), and also, a mother inherits what remains. It is written 'I have acquired,' meaning 'thus I will acquire.'

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.