Message: What Does Love Look Like 5

4:1 Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. 2 And he took ten men of the eld­ers of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. 3 Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the coun­try of Moab, is selling the par­cel of land that belonged to our rel­at­ive Elimelech. 4 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the pres­ence of those sit­ting here and in the pres­ence of the eld­ers of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” 5 Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to per­petu­ate the name of the dead in his inher­it­ance.” 6 Then the redeemer said, “I can­not redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inher­it­ance. Take my right of redemp­tion your­self, for I can­not redeem it.”

7 Now this was the cus­tom in former times in Israel con­cern­ing redeem­ing and exchan­ging: to con­firm a trans­ac­tion, the one drew off his san­dal and gave it to the other, and this was the man­ner of attest­ing in Israel. 8 So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for your­self,” he drew off his san­dal. 9 Then Boaz said to the eld­ers and all the people, “You are wit­nesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to per­petu­ate the name of the dead in his inher­it­ance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his broth­ers and from the gate of his nat­ive place. You are wit­nesses this day.” 11 Then all the people who were at the gate and the eld­ers said, “We are wit­nesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is com­ing into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act wor­thily in Eph­rathah and be renowned in Beth­le­hem, 12 and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the off­spring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her con­cep­tion, and she bore a son. 14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nour­isher of your old age, for your daughter-​​in-​​law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 17 And the women of the neigh­bor­hood gave him a name, say­ing, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

18 Now these are the gen­er­a­tions of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Ammin­adab, 20 Ammin­adab fathered Nah­s­hon, Nah­s­hon fathered Sal­mon, 21 Sal­mon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, 22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. (ESV)