Ruth · chapter 4 of 4
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Ruth 4 tells how Boaz goes to the town gate, asks a nearer relative to redeem Elimelech's land and take Ruth, and the man declines. Boaz buys the inheritance before ten elders, marries Ruth, and the Lord gives them a son, Obed. The women praise God for Naomi, and the book ends with the genealogy running from Perez to David.
Ruth 3 ended with Ruth and Naomi waiting for Boaz to settle the matter. Ruth 4 is the resolution: the law of the kinsman-redeemer is carried out in public, and the book shows that the losses of Ruth 1 were not the end. The chapter moves from sorrow to joy and ends pointing to King David and, in the New Testament, to the line of Jesus.
Boaz goes up to the town gate and sits down. The nearer relative he had mentioned passes by, and Boaz calls him by his seat and gathers ten elders of the town. He tells them that Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to their relative Elimelech, and proposes that the relative redeem it. If not, let him say so, and Boaz will. The relative answers that he will redeem it.
Then Boaz adds that on the day he buys the land from Naomi, he must also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance. The relative answers that he cannot redeem it, lest he impair his own inheritance, and gives his right to Boaz. In Israel, to confirm a transaction, one took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and the relative does so.
Boaz declares before the elders and the people that they are witnesses that he buys all that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion and Mahlon, and that he takes Ruth as his wife so the name of the dead may not be cut off. The people and the elders answer that they are witnesses and bless Ruth: may the Lord make her like Rachel and Leah, who built up the house of Israel, and may Boaz's house be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.
Boaz takes Ruth, and the Lord enables her to conceive and she bears a son. The women tell Naomi that the Lord be blessed, who has not left her without a redeemer, and that the child will restore her life and sustain her in old age, for her daughter-in-law, who loves her, is more to her than seven sons. Naomi takes the child on her lap and becomes his nurse. The neighbor women call him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David. The book ends with the genealogy of Perez: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse and David.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Boaz declares before the elders and the people that they are witnesses that he buys all that belonged to Elimelech and his sons. The redemption is done publicly and according to the law, so that no one disputes what was done.
Boaz takes Ruth as his wife, and the Lord enables her to conceive and bear a son. The text notes that it is the Lord who gives conception, and the woman who had been a widow and foreigner now has a home.
The women bless the Lord, who has not left Naomi without a redeemer, and ask that the child's name be famous in Israel. It is the counterpoint to Ruth 1: the woman who was empty now has reason to praise.
The neighbor women call the child Obed, father of Jesse, father of David. The book reveals that a faithful Moabite woman stands in the line of Israel's greatest king.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: At the gate of the town of Bethlehem. — Ruth 4:1-2
Answer: Ten elders. — Ruth 4:2
Answer: Because he did not want to impair his own inheritance by also taking Ruth. — Ruth 4:6
Answer: One took off his sandal and gave it to the other. — Ruth 4:7
Answer: They named him Obed. — Ruth 4:17
Answer: David, son of Jesse. — Ruth 4:22
Ruth 4 shows that God can change the course of a story of loss. Naomi had said she came back empty, and now she has a grandson on her lap and a daughter-in-law worth more than seven sons. In a class or small group we can remember that God does not waste our losses, even when we do not soon see the outcome.
Boaz is a redeemer who pays the price, and this helps us better understand the work of Christ, our Redeemer. Christians see that God includes people of every nation in the line of the Messiah, and that the simple faithfulness of people like Ruth belongs to a plan we do not fully understand.
Ruth 4 closes the book with the genealogy that reaches David and shows that, even in the era of the judges, the Lord was preparing his people's king. Matthew 1:5-6 includes Ruth and Boaz in the genealogy of Jesus, and the next book, 1 Samuel, begins with another household in Israel, that of Hannah and Elkanah.
The redeemer was a relative who rescued a family member in need by paying a price. Boaz fills that role for Ruth and Naomi, and many Christians see in that figure a shadow of Christ, who redeemed us by paying with his life.
It shows that David descended from Ruth, a Moabite who chose to follow the God of Israel, and that God works through ordinary families to fulfill his plans. Matthew 1 includes Ruth in the line of Jesus.
Perez was the son of Tamar and Judah, and his story in Genesis 38 shows how God worked despite difficult situations. The blessing asks that Boaz's house be like that of Perez, that is, numerous and blessed in Judah.