Quick summary so far: Naomi meets Ruth in a time of FOOD INSECURITY and GRIEF. Ruth leaves her home to follow Naomi – MAYBE because she believes her likelihood of a “happy life” are better with Naomi. They arrive in Bethlehem at the time of the harvest and Ruth’s willingness to WORK in the midst of a SYSTEM DESIGNED TO CARE FOR THE STARVING quickly turns into a potential opportunity for LIFELONG FOOD SECURITY in the person of Boaz. The conclusion of the story in Ruth chapter 4:
Boaz went straight to the public square and took his place there. Before long the “closer relative,” the one mentioned earlier by Boaz, strolled by.
“Step aside, old friend,” said Boaz. “Take a seat.” The man sat down.
Boaz then gathered ten of the town elders together and said, “Sit down here with us; we’ve got some business to take care of.” And they sat down.
Boaz then said to his relative, “The piece of property that belonged to our relative Elimelech is being sold by his widow Naomi, who has just returned from the country of Moab. I thought you ought to know about it. Buy it back if you want it—you can make it official in the presence of those sitting here and before the town elders. You have first redeemer rights. If you don’t want it, tell me so I’ll know where I stand. You’re first in line to do this and I’m next after you.”
He said, “I’ll buy it.”
Then Boaz added, “You realize, don’t you, that when you buy the field from Naomi, you also get Ruth the Moabite, the widow of our dead relative, along with the redeemer responsibility to have children with her to carry on the family inheritance.”
Then the relative said, “Oh, I can’t do that—I’d jeopardize my own family’s inheritance. You go ahead and buy it—you can have my rights—I can’t do it.”
* * *
In the olden times in Israel, this is how they handled official business regarding matters of property and inheritance: a man would take off his shoe and give it to the other person. This was the same as an official seal or personal signature in Israel.
So when Boaz’s “redeemer” relative said, “Go ahead and buy it,” he signed the deal by pulling off his shoe.
Boaz then addressed the elders and all the people in the town square that day: “You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and Kilion and Mahlon, including responsibility for Ruth the foreigner, the widow of Mahlon—I’ll take her as my wife and keep the name of the deceased alive along with his inheritance. The memory and reputation of the deceased is not going to disappear out of this family or from his hometown. To all this you are witnesses this very day.”
All the people in the town square that day, backing up the elders, said, “Yes, we are witnesses. May God make this woman who is coming into your household like Rachel and Leah, the two women who built the family of Israel. May God make you a pillar in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem! With the children God gives you from this young woman, may your family rival the family of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah.”
* * *
Boaz married Ruth. She became his wife. Boaz slept with her. By God’s gracious gift she conceived and had a son.
The town women said to Naomi, “Blessed be God! He didn’t leave you without family to carry on your life. May this baby grow up to be famous in Israel! He’ll make you young again! He’ll take care of you in old age. And this daughter-in-law who has brought him into the world and loves you so much, why, she’s worth more to you than seven sons!”
Naomi took the baby and held him in her arms, cuddling him, cooing over him, waiting on him hand and foot.
The neighborhood women started calling him “Naomi’s baby boy!” But his real name was Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.
* * *
This is the family tree of Perez:
Perez had Hezron,
Hezron had Ram,
Ram had Amminadab,
Amminadab had Nahshon,
Nahshon had Salmon,
Salmon had Boaz,
Boaz had Obed,
Obed had Jesse,
and Jesse had David.
The story concludes with the town council meeting to decide who gets Elimelech’s land – and Ruth! Don’t miss this part. Ruth’s fate was being decided at this meeting because her fate – as the daughter-in-law of Elimelech – was TIED to the land. She was every bit as much the property of the man that left that meeting with the land AS the land was. Again, they use the word “marriage” a couple of times in this chapter because it is what we can relate to, but this “marriage” had very little in common with a marriage in this day and age, or at least with the IDEAL of a marriage in this day and age…
The story doesn’t tell us whether Ruth KNEW this when she made the decision to follow Naomi. The same would have applied to Orpah, so the author must not have thought that detail was worth mentioning.
It is in th emidst of this meeting that we get a glimpse into the actual execution of some of the Leviticul economic system.
The first item that piques my interest is the implication that Naomi is a LANDOWNER. I thought she was DESTITUTE? I thougth she left home behind when she went to Moab? Well, it is a bit more complicated than that. Here is my understanding of the system:
According to other scritpure, there was a piece of the territory assigned to the tribe of Judah when the descendents of Israel entered the Promised Land. I’m having a little trouble making sense of any literal timeline for the book of Ruth in that context, but lets not worry so much about that. I have no need to understand this as a piece of history. It was written hundreds of years after the setting of the story, and may or may not have been written intent upon documenting history. One thing I DO like about The MESSAGE version is their introcution… “Once upon a time…” This is a story captured from ancient Hebrew writings intended at that time to tell a story to other Jews. Maybe canonized for some other reasons, such as the inclusion of the geneology essentially from Judah to David. So don’t get too caught up in whether this story is a fiction or non-fiction. I believe it is here for us to “glean” what we can from.
So within the territory allocated to the tribe of Judah – which included both Jerusalem and Bethlehem – the smaller tracts of land were divided out by the actual families of the tribe – the direct descendents of Judah, including each name listed in the geneology . In what I believe was an effort to combat POVERTY, that land STAYED in the family no matter what. Per Leviticus 25, it could be “sold” only temporarily, because every 50 years it came back to the “family.”
So is the impoverished Naomi a “landowner?” Well, sort of. If I attempt to put this story back into the Leviticus system, it would seem Elimelech “sold” his portion of the land when he took Naomi and the boys to Moab. But the buyer would have known that under the right circumstances the family had sort of a “first rights” to buy the land back should their fortunes change.
And it would seem their fortunes had changed.
I find the interaction with the closer relative fascinating. Maybe he was Elimelech’s “first cousin” or something. And Boaz was the oldest “second cousin.” So Boaz didn’t have the first opportunity to buy it back. The first cousin did.
And it wasn’t really Naomi that Boaz was buying it from. It was the person to whom Elimelech had sold it before moving to Moab. Maybe even one of the ten men sitting in the council meeting, or one of their close family members. But the fact that the land was first and foremost assigned to Elimelech and his descendants was NEVER questioned.
The only question was who would “redeem” it. So they had the meeting. The first cousin must have had SOME means, because he was initially very excited about the opportunity to own more land. But he also must have had some children of his own, and that issue caused him some heartburn when the topic of Ruth was raised.
Again, I don’t totally understand this. But it seems to me that the addition of another family line to his “harem” was going to create some succession problems.
Nowhere in the story are we told whether either the first cousin OR Boaz had any other “women.” Because that is really the Old Testament word used in MOST of the Old Testament when referring to men and women coming together to form an ancient household. I think it is safe to assume the first cousin DID have other women and other children because that is the only factor I can see making sense of his initial excitement about the additional land and his eventual reliquishing of those rights.
We in the 21st century maybe want to assume Boaz had no other “women” in his life, and that freed him up to take on Ruth. I don’t think we should read that into this story. He was a man of wealth and power in a time where that inferred the taking of women. Not just becuase he COULD. But also because the women needed that protection as well.
I have heard this story taught dozens of times, and typically Boaz – the redeemer – is made out to be the picture of Jesus, and therefore given a very good review here. Here is the way I see this story playing out:
Wealthy, powerful Boaz – who was of apparently NO help to Elimelech’s family 10 years earlier – leaves his mansion in the city to check out the harvest. There, he lays eyes on the exotic foreigner, Ruth. From the first moment he sees her, he wants her. He may well have known from that first introduction that there was a clear path to that fantasy coming to fruition. So he gave her attention. He FED her and Naomi for months. And waited for this day. Knowing he had ONE more hurdle to get past – the first cousin.
“You realize, don’t you, that when you buy that field from Naomi, you also get Ruth the Moabite…”
I think he was very prepared for that hurdle. And the shocked first cousin had no time to think through his position at all. And Boaz was home free.
Boaz had land. Boaz had power. Boaz had prestige in the tribe. Boaz wanted Ruth. So the deal is done and Boaz makes a grand announcement to the people in the square, suggesting this act of… what… benevolence?… will keep the “memory and reputation” of Elimelech alive and well. We are now more than 2,000 years since this story was written, and I have a NEPHEW named Boaz. Anyone have any nephews named Elimelech?
What about Naomi? Well, the town women essentially told us that her sale of land (and her daughter-in-law) to Boaz, and the subsequent birth of baby Obed (which in old Hebrew means “servant”) will “take care of you in old age.”
FOOD SECURITY for Naomi.
FOOD SECURITY for Ruth.
Companionship and even more wealth for Boaz.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to be negative about the system or about Boaz. The system in the story seems to have done exactly what it was designed to do, keeping Naomi and Ruth out of poverty. I just think anything analogous to Jesus is only possible if we ignore the guts of the story. Jesus is SELFLESS. Nowhere in this story is Boaz SELFLESS, from my perspective. He uses the system to get what he wants. Again, nothing at all like Jesus, who was EXECUTED by the system of His day because His SELFLESSNESS was too threatening.
