Boaz Redeems Ruth

4 Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there; and behold, athe close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, “Come aside, 1friend, sit down here.” So he came aside and sat down. 2 And he took ten men of bthe elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. 3 Then he said to the close relative, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold the piece of land cwhich belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 And I thought to 2inform you, saying, d‘Buy it back ein the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if 3you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know; ffor there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you.’ ”

And he said, “I will redeem it.”

5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, gto 4perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance.”

6 hAnd the close relative said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

7 iNow this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging, to confirm anything: one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was a confirmation in Israel.

8 Therefore the close relative said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” So he took off his sandal. 9 And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. 10 Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, jthat the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from 5his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day.”

11 And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. kThe Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who lbuilt the house of Israel; and may you prosper in mEphrathah and be famous in nBethlehem. 12 May your house be like the house of oPerez, pwhom Tamar bore to Judah, because of qthe offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman.”