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I'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!”

“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.”

The man answered, “If that's the case, I don't want to buy it! That would make problems with the property I already own.[a] You may buy it yourself, because I cannot.”

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Footnotes

  1. 4.6 property … own: This property would then have to be shared with Ruth and her children as well as with his own family.

I 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[a] will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you,(A) and I am next in line.”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite,(B) the[b] dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”(C)

At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem(D) it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”(E)

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Footnotes

  1. Ruth 4:4 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts he
  2. Ruth 4:5 Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew (see also Septuagint) Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you acquire the