Ruth 4:1

1 ascendit ergo Booz ad portam et sedit ibi cumque vidisset propinquum praeterire de quo prius sermo habitus est dixit ad eum declina paulisper et sede hic vocans eum nomine suo qui devertit et sedit

Ruth 4:1 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 4:1

Then went Boaz up to the gate
In the middle of the day, as Josephus ^F4 says, to the gate of the city, where people were continually passing and repassing to and from the country, and where he was most likely to meet with the person he wanted to see and converse with, and where courts of judicature were usually held, and where it was proper to call one to determine the affair he had in hand; so the Targum,

``and Boaz went up to the gate of the house of judgment of the sanhedrim:''

and set him down there;
waiting for the person or persons passing by, with whom be chose to speak:

and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by;
the kinsman that was nearer than he, of whom he had spoke to Ruth, that if he would not redeem her, he would; a "behold" is prefixed to this, to observe the providence of God that ordered it so, that he should come that way just at the time Boaz was sitting there, and waiting for him; who perhaps was going into his field to look after his threshers and winnowers, as Boaz had been:

unto whom he said, ho, such an one;
calling him by his name, though it is not expressed; which the writer of this history might not know, or, if he did, thought it not material to give it, some have been of opinion that it is purposely concealed, as a just retaliation to him, that as he chose not to raise up seed to his kinsman, to perpetuate his name, so his own is buried in oblivion; though it might be done in his favour, that his name might not be known, and lie under disgrace, for refusing to act the part he ought according to the law to have done; hence the plucking off the shoe, and spitting in his face, were done to such an one by way of contempt and reproach. The words are "peloni almoni", words used by the Hebrews of persons and places, whose names they either could not, or did not choose to mention, which two words are contracted into "palmoni" in ( Daniel 8:13 ) . The name of this man was "Tob" or "Tobias", according to some Jewish writers, (See Gill on Ruth 3:13), to him Boaz said,

turn aside, and sit down here; and he turned aside, and sat down;
instead of going right forward, as he intended, about his business, he turned on one side as he was desired, and sat down by Boaz.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 4.

Ruth 4:1 In-Context

1 ascendit ergo Booz ad portam et sedit ibi cumque vidisset propinquum praeterire de quo prius sermo habitus est dixit ad eum declina paulisper et sede hic vocans eum nomine suo qui devertit et sedit

2 tollens autem Booz decem viros de senioribus civitatis dixit ad eos sedete hic

3 quibus residentibus locutus est ad propinquum partem agri fratris nostri Helimelech vendit Noemi quae reversa est de regione moabitide

4 quod audire te volui et tibi dicere coram cunctis sedentibus et maioribus natu de populo meo si vis possidere iure propinquitatis eme et posside sin autem tibi displicet hoc ipsum indica mihi ut sciam quid facere debeam nullus est enim propinquus excepto te qui prior es et me qui secundus sum at ille respondit ego agrum emam

5 cui dixit Booz quando emeris agrum de manu mulieris Ruth quoque Moabitidem quae uxor defuncti fuit debes accipere ut suscites nomen propinqui tui in hereditate sua