Ruth 4 — Church Fathers

Judges

Chapter 3

1 Kings

Chapter 4

Ruth 4:1-6

BOAZ AT THE CITY GATE

1 entry

1 Booz therefore went up to the gate, and sat there. And when he had seen the nigh kinsman pass by, of whom the talk was had before, he said to him: Turn in a little while, and sit here: calling him by his name. Who turned in, and sat. 1 note

2 And Booz taking ten men of the city, said to them: Sit ye here. 1 note

3 Who sitting down, he spake to the nigh kinsman: Noemi, who is returned from the country of Moab, will sell the part of the field belonging to our brother Elimelech. 1 note

4 Which I would thee to understand, and would tell thee before all that sit, and the ancients of my people. If thou wilt possess it by the right of nigh kindred, buy, and possess it. But if it please thee not, tell me the same, that I may know what I ought to do. For there is no nigh kinsman saving thee, which art first, and me, who am second. But he answered: I will buy the field. 1 note

5 To whom Booz said: When thou shalt buy the field at the woman's hand, thou must take also Ruth the Moabite, which was the wife of the deceased: that thou mayest raise up the name of thy kinsman in his inheritance. 1 note

6 Who answered: I yield my right of nigh kindred: for I may not abolish the posterity of mine own family. Do thou use my privilege, which I profess that I do willingly forgo. 1 note

Ruth 4:7-12

BOAZ REDEEMS NAOMI’S PROPERTY

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7 And this in old time was the manner in Israel between kinsmen, that if at any time one yielded to another his right: that the grant might be sure, the man put off his shoe, & gave it to his neighbour, this was a testimony of yielding in Israel. 1 note

8 Booz therefore said to his kinsman: Take off thy shoe. Which immediately he loosed from his foot. 1 note

9 But to the ancients, & the whole people he said: You are witnesses this day, that I have purchased all things which were Elimelech's, and Chelion's and Mahalon's, Noemi delivering them: 1 note

10 & have taken in marriage Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahalon, that I may raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance, lest his name be abolished out of his family and brethren and people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing. 1 note

11 All the people that was in the gate answered, & the ancients: We are witnesses: Our Lord make this woman, which entereth into thy house, as Rachel, and Lia, which builded the house of Israel: that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and may have a famous name in Bethlehem: 1 note

12 and that thy house may be, as the house of Phares, whom Thamar bare to Judas, of the seed which our Lord shall give thee of this young woman. 1 note

Ruth 4:13-22

THE BIRTH OF OBED

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13 Booz therefore took Ruth, and had her to wife: and went in unto her and our Lord gave her to conceive, and to bear a son. 1 note

14 And the women said to Noemi: Blessed be our Lord, which hath not suffered that there should fail a successor of thy family: That his name should be called in Israel. 1 note

15 And thou shouldst have one that may comfort thy soul, and cherish thy old age. For of thy daughter in law is he born, which will love thee: and much better is she to thee, than if thou hadst seven sons. 1 note

16 And Noemi taking the child put it in her bosom, & did the office of a nurse & of one that should carry him. 1 note

17 And the women her neighbours congratulating her, & saying: There is a son born to Noemi: called his name Obed: this is the father of Isai, the father of David. 1 note

18 These are the generations of Phares: Phares begat Esron, 1 note

19 Esron begat Aram: Aram begat Aminadab, 1 note

20 Aminadab begat Nahasson, Nahasson begat Salmon, 1 note

21 Salmon begat Booz, Booz begat Obed, 1 note

22 Obed begat Isai, Isai begat David. 1 note

3 entries

Ruth 4:1-6 1 entry

BOAZ AT THE CITY GATE

THE BRIDE, BRIDEGROOM AND BEST MAN PREFIGURED.

St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636)

When Ruth entered the land of Israel with her mother-in-law, it was provided (on account of the merits of her prayers) that she be married to a man of the lineage of Abraham and whom, indeed, she at first believed to be her closest kinsman. He [the nearest kinsman] said that he could not marry her and, when he had withdrawn, Boaz was married to her, with the witness of ten elders. He [Boaz] who previously confessed himself unable to marry that same woman was united with her and was blessed by those ten elders.

It is thought that this passage prefigures John the Baptist who, when he himself was thought by the people of Israel to be Christ and was asked who he was, did not deny who he was but confessed it, saying that he was not Christ. And those who were sent persisted in these inquiries about who he was. He answered, I am the voice crying in the desert.^[1] He confessed the good news about the Lord, saying, He who has the bride is the bridegroom. He showed that he himself was the friend of the groom [the best man], since he added, Truly, the friend of the groom is he who stands and hears him and rejoices on account of the groom’s voice.^[2] And so they thought he was Christ, because they did not understand that Christ had come on the day of the visitation^[3] and that he who was earlier promised by the prophets’ voices was the church’s bridegroom. But just as he told her he was not her kinsman but then afterwards Ruth was united with Boaz, so Christ, who is the true bridegroom of the church, whom the sayings of all the prophets proclaim, was deemed worthy, from all Gentile nations, to claim the church, to present to God the Father unnumbered people throughout the whole orb of the world, because his kinsman took off the sandals.

On Ruth

Ruth 4:7-12 1 entry

BOAZ REDEEMS NAOMI’S PROPERTY

THE CUSTOM OF REDEMPTION.

St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 333–397)

For, by the law, when a man died, the marriage bond with his wife was passed on to his brother or other male next of kin, in order that the seed of the brother or next of kin might renew the life of the house. And so it was that Ruth, though she was foreign-born, had possessed a husband of the Jewish people who had left a kinsman of near relation. Although she was seen and loved by Boaz while gleaning and maintaining herself and her mother-in-law with what she gleaned, she could not become the wife of Boaz until she had first loosed the shoe from him whose wife she ought, by the law, to have become.

The story is a simple one, but deep are its hidden meanings, for that which was done was the outward signs of something more. If indeed we should stretch the sense so as to fit the letter exactly, we should almost find the words an occasion of a certain shame and horror, that we should regard them as intending and conveying the thought of common bodily intercourse. Rather it was the foreshadowing of one who was to arise from the Jewish people—whence Christ was, after the flesh—who should, with the seed of heavenly teaching, revive the seed of his dead kinsman, that is to say, the people, and to whom the precepts of the law, in their spiritual significance, assigned the sandal of marriage, for the espousals of the church.

On the Christian Faith 3.69-70

Ruth 4:13-22 1 entry

THE BIRTH OF OBED

RUTH’S LOVE REWARDED.

St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373)

Let Tamar rejoice that her Lord has come, for her name announced the son of her Lord, and her appellation called you to come to her.

By you honorable women made themselves contemptible, [you] the One who makes all chaste. She stole you at the crossroads, [you] who prepared the road to the house of the kingdom. Since she stole life, the sword was insufficient to kill her.

Ruth lay down with a man on the threshing floor for your sake. Her love was bold for your sake. She teaches boldness to all penitents. Her ears held in contempt all [other] voices for the sake of your voice.

The fiery coal that crept into the bed of Boaz went up and lay down. She saw the Chief Priest hidden in his loins, the fire for his censer. She ran and became the heifer of Boaz. For you she brought forth the fatted ox.

She went gleaning for love of you; she gathered straw. You repaid her quickly the wage of her humiliation: instead of ears [of wheat], the Root of kings, and instead of straw, the Sheaf of Life that descends from her.

Hymns on the Nativity 9.12-16