Ruth 4:1-6

Common English Bible

A new family brings fulfillment

4 Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. Just then, the redeemer about whom Boaz had spoken was passing by. He said, “Sir, come over here and sit down.” So he turned aside and sat down. ² Then he took ten men from the town’s elders and said, “Sit down here.” And they sat down.

³ Boaz said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the field of Moab, is selling the portion of the field that belonged to our brother Elimelech. ⁴ I thought that I should let you know 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^[a] won’t redeem it, tell me so that I may know. There isn’t anyone to redeem it except you, and I’m next in line after you.”

He replied, “I will redeem it.”

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day when you buy the field from Naomi, you also buy^[b] Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the dead man, in order to preserve the dead man’s name for his inheritance.”

⁶ But the redeemer replied, “Then I can’t redeem it for myself, without risking damage to my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself. You can have my right of redemption, because I’m unable to act as redeemer.”