Font Size
Ruth 4:5-7
Evangelical Heritage Version
Ruth 4:5-7
Evangelical Heritage Version
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day that you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, I will acquire[a] from Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the deceased, the means to perpetuate the name of the deceased on his inheritance.”
6 Then the redeemer said, “I am not able to redeem it for myself, or I would ruin my inheritance. You acquire for yourself my right of redemption, because I am not able to redeem it.”
7 (In Israel this used to be the custom regarding the transfer of the right of redemption: To confirm every transfer, one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other party. This was the way of ratifying a transfer in Israel.)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ruth 4:5 The reading I will acquire is the reading from the main Hebrew text. Many translations follow the Hebrew reading from the margin (qere) you must acquire. This second reading also has good support in the ancient versions, but the redeemer of land had no legal obligation to serve as a levir, a brother-in-law who married his brother’s widow in order to provide an heir for him. The threat that Boaz holds over the man is not that if the man takes the land, he must also marry Ruth, but that if the man takes the land, Boaz will marry Ruth, and their first son will get the land. Boaz treats acquiring the land and marrying Ruth as two separate transactions.
Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.