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;
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.