Ruth 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:

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. You may buy it yourself, because I cannot.”[#4.6 This property would then have to be shared with Ruth and her children as well as with his own family.]

⁷To make a sale legal in those days, one person would take off a sandal and give it to the other.[#Dt 25.9.]

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:

¹¹The town leaders and the others standing there said:[#Gn 29.31.]

¹³Boaz married Ruth, and the Lord blessed her with a son.

¹⁴After his birth, the women said to Naomi:

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.

^{18-19-20-21-22}Here is a list of the ancestors of David: Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon, Nahshon, Amminadab, Ram, Hezron, and Perez.