Ruth 4
Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned
came along, Boaz said, “Come over here, my
friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said,
“Sit here,” and they did so. 3Then he said to the kinsman-
redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from
Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our
brother Elimelech. 4I 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 d 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.
5Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from
Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the
dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the
dead with his property.”
6At this, the kinsman-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 legalising transactions in Israel.)
8So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it
yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
9Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the
people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought
from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and
Mahlon. 10I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess,
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 the
town records. Today you are witnesses!”
11Then the elders and all those 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 house of Israel. May you have standing
in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.
12Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this
young woman, may your family be like that of Perez,
whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
The Genealogy of David
13So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then
he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive,
and she gave birth to a son. 14The women said to Naomi:
“Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you
without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous
throughout Israel! 15He will renew your life and sustain
you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who
loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has
given him birth.”
16Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and
cared for him. 17The women living there said, “Naomi
has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father
of Jesse, the father of David. 18This, then, is the family line of Perez:
Perez was the father of Hezron,
19Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon, a
21 Salmon the father of Boaz,
Boaz the father of Obed,
22 Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David.