Ruth 4:1–8

Boaz Marries Ruth

Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate^a and sat down there just as the family guardian^b he had mentioned^c came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

Boaz took ten of the elders^d of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so.^e Then he said to the family guardian, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek.^f 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 will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you,^g 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,^h the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”ⁱ

At this, the family guardian said, “Then I cannot redeem^j it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”^k

(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption^l and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal^m and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactionsⁿ in Israel.)^o

So the family guardian said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.^p