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Ruth 4:9

in Ruth 4

At this, Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi.

KJV

And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi.

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This verse in Ruth 4

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Boaz said unto the elders, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was . . . Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi--Although the widow of Chilion was still living, no regard was paid to her in the disposal of her husband's property.

This site's exposition

that I have bought all

on Ruth 4:9-10

Ye are witnesses this day falls twice in these two verses and nowhere else in Scripture, which is how a sale of this size closes with no document. Boaz names three dead men, Elimelech and Chilion and Mahlon, and states his purpose as raising up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, so the business at the gate is a name before it is a field. Ruth is called the Moabitess in the sentence that makes her a wife in Bethlehem, the fifth and last time the book says it of her. Matthew Henry reads Boaz here as a figure of Christ the redeemer buying back a forfeited inheritance, which is his reading and not something the New Testament says at this verse.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Isidore of Seville

ON RUTH · Written before 636.

proposed

It was an old custom that if a groom wished to divorce his bride he took off his sandal and this was the sign of the divorce. Consequently, he was ordered to take off his sandals, lest he approach the church wearing sandals like a …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Our Lord Jesus is our Goel, our Redeemer, our everlasting Redeemer. He looked, like Boaz, with compassion on the deplorable state of fallen mankind. At a vast expense he redeemed the heavenly inheritance for us, which by sin was mortgaged, and forfeited into the hands of divine justice, and which we should never have been able to redeem.
And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

To perpetuate the name of the deceased upon his inheritance: Since his wife goes and comes on the estate and brings in and takes out [items], people say, “This is Machlon’s wife,” and thereby his name is remembered upon it.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ruth 4:10:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

21 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּאמֶר֩and he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • בֹּ֨עַזBoaz

    boazH1162 →24 times

  • לַזְּקֵנִ֜יםto the elders

    lazekenimH2205 →178 times

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • הָעָ֗םthe people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • עֵדִ֤ים[are] witnesses

    ʾedimH5707 →70 times

  • אַתֶּם֙you

    ʾatemH859 →1094 times

  • הַיּ֔וֹםthis day

    haiyomH3117 →2304 times

  • כִּ֤יthat

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • קָנִ֙יתִי֙I acquire

    kanitiH7069 →84 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֣רthat

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לֶֽאֱלִימֶ֔לֶךְ[belonged] to Elimelech

    leelimelekhH458 →6 times

  • וְאֵ֛תand <obj.>

    veetH853 →10935 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רthat

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לְכִלְי֖וֹן[belonged] to Kilion

    lekhilyonH3630 →3 times

  • וּמַחְל֑וֹןand Mahlon

    umachlonH4248 →4 times

  • מִיַּ֖דfrom [the] hand of

    miyadH3027 →1618 times

  • נָעֳמִֽי׃Naomi

    noomiH5281 →21 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

Where this verse is studied

About Ruth

Ruth and Boaz, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ruth and Boaz, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ruth: the study guide →Read Ruth 4 →

This page draws on Isidore of Seville, ON RUTH; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Ruth 4 →