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Then Boaz said, ‘The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth[a] the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.’ At this, the next-of-kin[b] said, ‘I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.’

Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, one party took off a sandal and gave it to the other; this was the manner of attesting in Israel.

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Footnotes

  1. Ruth 4:5 OL Vg: Heb from the hand of Naomi and from Ruth
  2. Ruth 4:6 Or one with the right to redeem

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