Ruth 4
4
Ruth and Boaz Get Married
1In the meanwhile, Boaz had gone to the meeting place at the town gate and was sitting there when the other close relative came by. So Boaz invited him to come over and sit down, and he did. 2Then Boaz got ten of the town leaders and also asked them to sit down. After they had sat down, 3he said to the man:
Naomi has come back from Moab and is selling the land that belonged to her husband Elimelech. 4I'm telling you about this, since you are his closest relative and have the right to buy the property. If you want it, you can buy it now. These ten men and the others standing here can be witnesses. But if you don't want the property, let me know, because I am next in line.
The man replied, “I'll buy it!”
5“If you do buy it from Naomi,” Boaz told him, “you must also marry Ruth. Then if you have a son by her, the property will stay in the family of Ruth's first husband.”
6The man answered, “If that's the case, I don't want to buy it! That would make problems with the property I already own.#4.6 property … own: This property would then have to be shared with Ruth and her children as well as with his own family. You may buy it yourself, because I cannot.”
7 #
Dt 25.9. To make a sale legal in those days, one person would take off a sandal and give it to the other. 8So after the man had agreed to let Boaz buy the property, he took off one of his sandals and handed it to Boaz.
9Boaz told the town leaders and everyone else:
All of you are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi the property that belonged to Elimelech and his two sons, Chilion and Mahlon. 10#Dt 25.5,6. You are also witnesses that I have agreed to marry Mahlon's widow Ruth, the Moabite woman. This will keep the property in his family's name, and he will be remembered in this town.
11 #
Gn 29.31. The town leaders and the others standing there said:
We are witnesses to this. And we pray that the Lord will give your wife many children, just as he did Leah and Rachel, the wives of Jacob. May you be a rich man in the tribe of Ephrath and an important man in Bethlehem. 12#Gn 38.27-30. May the children you have by this young woman make your family as famous as the family of Perez,#4.12 Perez: One of the sons of Judah; he was an ancestor of Boaz and of many others who lived in Bethlehem. the son of Tamar and Judah.
13Boaz married Ruth, and the Lord blessed her with a son. 14After his birth, the women said to Naomi:
Praise the Lord! Today he has given you a grandson to take care of you. We pray that the boy will grow up to be famous everywhere in Israel. 15He will#4.14,15 We pray that … famous … 15 He will: Or “We pray that the Lord will be praised everywhere in Israel. 15 Your grandson will.” make you happy and take care of you in your old age, because he is the son of your daughter-in-law. And she loves you more than seven sons of your own would love you.
16Naomi loved the boy and took good care of him. 17The neighborhood women named him Obed, but they called him “Naomi's Boy.”
When Obed grew up he had a son named Jesse, who later became the father of King David. 18-22Here is a list of the ancestors of David: Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon, Nahshon, Amminadab, Ram, Hezron, and Perez.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Ruth 4
4
1Then Booz went up to the gate, and sat there. And when he had seen the kinsman going by, of whom he had spoken before, he said to him, calling him by his name: Turn aside for a little while, and sit down here. He turned aside, and sat down.
2And Booz, taking ten men of the ancients of the city, said to them: Sit ye down here.
3They sat down, and he spoke to the kinsman: Noemi, who is returned from the country of Moab, will sell a parcel of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech.
4I would have thee to understand this, and would tell thee before all that sit here, and before the ancients of my people. If thou wilt take possession of it by the right of kindred: buy it and possess it. But if it please thee not, tell me so, that I may know what I have to do. For there is no near kinsman besides thee, who art first, and me, who am second. But he answered: I will buy the field.
5And Booz said to him: When thou shalt buy the field at the woman's hand, thou must take also Ruth the Moabitess, who was the wife of the deceased: to raise up the name of thy kinsman in his inheritance.
6He answered: I yield up my right of next akin; for I must not cut off the posterity of my own family. Do thou make use of my privilege, which I profess I do willingly forego.
7Now this in former times was the manner in Israel between kinsmen, that if at any time one yielded his right to another: that the grant might be sure, the man put off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour. This was a testimony of cession of right in Israel.
8So Booz said to his kinsman: Put off thy shoe. And immediately he took it off from his foot.
9And he said to the ancients and to all the people: You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and Chelion's, and Mahalon's, of the hand of Noemi.
10And have taken to wife Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahalon, to raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance lest his name be cut off, from among his family and his brethren and his people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing.
11Then all the people that were in the gate, and the ancients answered: We are witnesses. The Lord make this woman who cometh into thy house, like Rachel, and Lia, who built up the house of Israel: that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and may have a famous name in Bethlehem.
12And that the house may be, as the house of Phares, whom Thamar bore unto Juda, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman.
13Booz therefore took Ruth, and married her and went in unto her: and the Lord gave her to conceive and to bear a son.
14And the women said to Noemi: Blessed be the Lord, who hath not suffered thy family to want a successor, that his name should be preserved in Israel.
15And thou shouldst have one to comfort thy soul, and cherish thy old age. For he is born of thy daughter-in-law: who loveth thee: and is much better to thee, than if thou hadst seven sons.
16And Noemi taking the child laid it in her bosom, and she carried it, and was a nurse unto it.
17And the women her neighbours, congratulating with her and saying: There is a son born to Noemi: and thry have called his name Obed: He is the father of Isai, the father of David.
18These are the generations of Phares: Phares begot Esron,
19Esron begot Aram, Aram begot Aminadab,
20Aminadab begot Nahasson, Nahasson begot Salmon,
21Salmon begot Booz, Booz begot Obed,
22Obed begot Isai, Isai begot David.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.