The second thing we learn about Boaz is that he was a man of wealth. The expression sometimes means a ‘valiant’ man: it is used of Gideon, the ‘mighty man of valour’, and of Jephthah, ‘mighty warrior’.11 Sometimes it means a man of ‘substance’, as in Moses’ prayer for Levi, ‘Bless, O Lord, his substance.’12 Sometimes it means ‘riches’, a word used several times by Isaiah.13 It also carries the sense of moral worth—indeed it is the word used by Boaz to commend Ruth in 3:11: ‘All my