And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi;
Ruth 4:9 is the moment the deal is closed. In the gate of Bethlehem, before the elders and the whole town, Boaz names what he has bought back — everything that belonged to Naomi's dead husband and his two sons.
Boaz did not settle this privately with Naomi. He took it to the place where the town handled its legal business, in front of everyone.
With the promptness and energy of a heart fully engaged, Boaz goes up to "the gate." This was the place of rule, where people settled all matters and made all transfers. It would match the courts of today, where people complete all their legal business. In the matter he was handling, nothing was to be done "in a corner." Everyone concerned had to agree, and men with legal authority to approve it had to witness it in the light of open day.
The verse names three dead men — Elimelech, Chilion, Mahlon. Boaz was buying back the whole holding of a family that had died out. Two widows gained by it.
The account of what happened in the gate of Bethlehem shows that the redemption had two parts. First, he bought from Naomi everything that belonged to her husband and her two sons; all three men had died in the land of Moab. Second, he "bought" Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be his own wife. So both widows gained by the deal. Naomi received from Boaz the value of the inheritance to live on. She had depended on what Ruth gathered in the barley fields, and now, by comparison, she was "rich and increased with goods." And Ruth the "stranger" became the wife of Boaz of Bethlehem, the "mighty man of wealth." Boaz had admitted that he was a "brother" to the dead Elimelech, in the broad sense of a near relative. So he took on a brother's duty under the law (Deut. 25:5-10): to marry the widowed Ruth and raise up children to carry on Elimelech's name and inheritance in the tribe of Judah and the land of Israel.
This was more than charity for two poor women. Behind the sale stood a landowner with a prior claim.
In fact, this involved more than supporting the impoverished widows. The inheritance was Jehovah's gift to this family, and for that reason it had to be recovered and made secure to them. In the days of Joshua, Elimelech's ancestors received this piece of ground by lot, to hold for themselves and their heirs for all time. Jehovah was the landowner: "the land is mine" (Lev. 25:23). Any question affecting the line of succession or a change of occupant had to be settled on a righteous basis in the eyes of Jehovah. Redemption was a sacred transaction, and not a mere matter of human bargaining.
Someone held a claim on this land, and Boaz met it with money.
Boaz, however, redeemed the inheritance by paying for it, not by force. He was wealthy enough to pay what was asked to get it back. We are not told the price, but it fully met every righteous claim of the creditor. And the New Testament reveals this: by the immeasurable value and effect of His sacrificial offering, Christ Jesus "obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:12).
Ruth came from Moab, a nation Israel's law kept at a distance. The same law provided the door she walked through.
In this way the law of Israel was kept perfectly. Ruth was a Moabite, and the law forbade accepting a Moabite to the tenth generation. Yet Israel welcomed her in, because Israel's law had also made provision for a related redeemer to do exactly that. In the same way, the law shut ungodly Gentiles out of Israel. But the law still bore witness to the coming of the Lord Jesus, whose great sacrifice has brought redemption for the ungodly.
Commentators see this call for witnesses as a picture of an announcement still to come for Israel.
Boaz calls the elders and all the people to witness that he has bought the whole forfeited inheritance and the Gentile widow Ruth. In the same way, our Lord will call everyone to witness His redemption of His desolate people. "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned" (Isa. 40:1-2).
Ruth had been picking up leftovers in those fields. After this announcement, they belonged to her husband — and so to her.
For Ruth, the result was that Boaz became not only her redeemer but her bridegroom. The fields where she gleaned became hers too. She got the inheritance. Our true Boaz, our Kinsman, Redeemer and Bridegroom, will share with us His wide fields, His glorious inheritance. The saints are "heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ."
- Price — Boaz bought the land back instead of seizing it, and the price met every righteous claim.
- Right — the land was God's gift to that family, so the transfer had to be righteous, not a private bargain.
- Public — he took it to the gate, so nothing was done in a corner and the whole town could confirm it.
- Reach — the law itself provided a redeeming relative, so a woman from Moab came into Israel with no rule bent.
- Inheritance — her redeemer married her, so the field she once gleaned in became hers.
moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren and from the gate of his place ye are witnesses this day.
At Bethlehem's gate Boaz says out loud what he has bought and why: a dead man's name must not vanish from his own town. Two things in that announcement surprise a modern reader — a woman is "bought," and the buyer never mentions his own gain.
Boaz's announcement covers a field and a marriage in one deal.
The redemption had two parts. First, Boaz bought from Naomi everything that had belonged to her husband and her two sons; all three men had died in Moab. Second, he "bought" Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, to be his wife. So both widows gained by the transaction. Naomi received from Boaz the value of the inheritance to live on. She had depended on Ruth's gleanings in the barley fields, and now she was well off. And Ruth the "stranger" became the wife of Boaz the Bethlehemite, the mighty man of wealth. Boaz had owned himself a "brother" — a near relative of the dead Elimelech. So he took up a brother's duty under the law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. He was to marry the widowed Ruth and raise up offspring. In that way Elimelech's name and inheritance would continue in the tribe of Judah and the land of Israel.
At the very moment she becomes a wife, she is still called by the name of the foreign nation she came from.
In the presence of the same ten men who had witnessed the first kinsman's refusal to buy the inheritance, he buys everything — the inheritance, and Ruth too, the Moabitess, as she is called to remind us of the grace of the transaction.
That title carried a legal barrier, and writers point out that the same law which shut Moab out also opened the door.
Ruth was a Moabitess, yet Israel welcomed her into its community. The law forbade accepting a Moabite until the tenth generation. That was possible because Israel's law had also made provision for a related redeemer to bring such a person in.
The nearer relative had the first legal right, and he refused it.
No, the law certainly cannot raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance. Only the power of God in grace can meet the need pictured here. The kinsman hands over his shoe — the sign of entering into possession — to the one in whom there is power. The law testifies and yields its rights to Christ, and He is declared the only possible Redeemer.
That man stands for the law itself.
Like this man, the law had prior rights over Israel. The law demands; it takes, and it gives nothing. It would no longer be the law if it could take on the work of grace… It is a minister of death and cannot give life to the dead.
The record never names the price Boaz paid, only the result.
The price that Boaz paid we are not told, but the property and the person he wanted both became his. Redemption gave him the title to claim Ruth as his bride… "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field" (Matthew 13:44). The field is the world. The hidden treasure means the souls in it that are precious to the Saviour's heart. For their sake He sells all that He has and gives up everything… For the sake of the treasure — "His own" — He buys all.
One writer dwells on what that day meant for Ruth herself.
What a day of gladness for poor Ruth! What a perfect work Boaz finished for her that day — what a complete change for her, what perfect rest! She is no longer the poor, sorrowing, outcast Moabitess. No more gleaning and beating out grain. No more coming and going. No more enjoying blessing with Boaz one hour and being away from him, desolate, the next. The stranger gleaner is now one with him forever… You had nothing to bring to him. Boaz had everything to give for you.
The two purchases, land and person, point beyond Bethlehem.
He buys the inheritance, and it becomes his. He also takes Ruth for himself, named the Moabitess here for the last time. Israel's land is yet to be known as Immanuel's, for indeed He has bought it at its full value. The people, also, are the purchased of His love. In Ruth's case the picture must fall short… "For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called" (Isaiah 54:5).
- Demand — the law had the prior claim, but it takes and gives nothing. It cannot give life to the dead, so it steps aside and hands its right to the One who has power.
- Purchase — Boaz buys the field and the widow in one act; the price is never named, only the result — both became his.
- Grace — she is still "the Moabitess" on her wedding day. The barrier was real, and a related redeemer removed it.
- Rest — the gleaner had nothing to bring. The day Boaz bought her ends her coming and going for good.
- Name — the purchase keeps a dead man's name alive on his own land; Israel's land and people will yet be known as Immanuel's.