Ruth 4_Is there a way back to Eden?
14/7/24
Scripture reading
Ruth 4
What is a redeemer?
In Hebrew, the verb גָּאַל (gā·ʾǎl), can mean to deliver, save, formally buy back, e.g. to remove indentured or slavery [Exodus 6:6] BUT strangely can also mean to be ceremonially unclean, defiled [Lamentations 4:14; Zephaniah 3:1]! The noun גָּאַל [gō·ʾǎl] carries the same idea of a saviour who becomes unclean!1
What a coincidence!?
In chapter 3 we saw Ruth propose marriage to her deceased husband’s near relative Boaz. However, there was a closer relative who had priority in redeeming Ruth [3:12]2.
1 And Boaz had gone up to the city gate and sat there. And look, the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken was passing by. And he said, “Come over here to sit, friend.” And he came over and sat.
This closer relative is not named. What’s the writer’s point?
2 And he took ten men from the elders of the city and said, “Sit here.” And they sat. 3 And he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who returned from the countryside of Moab, is selling the tract of land [ḥelqâ] which was for our brother Elimelech. 4 And I thought I would tell you and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting and before the elders of my people,’ if you want to redeem it, redeem it. But if you do not want to redeem, tell me so that I may know, for there is no one except you to redeem it, and I am after you.” And he said, “I want to redeem it.”
What is the significance of ten elders from the context?
Ḥelqâ “is rooted in the apportionment of the land among the tribes and clans of Israel under Joshua”3 and reinforces the necessity that the family did not lose their ancestral land, they did not lose their share of Eden, and Bethlehem specifically.
What is the significance of Bethlehem [Micah 5:2 ]? Massive plot clue!
5 And Boaz said, “On the day of your acquiring the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the dead man, in order to raise up for the name of the dead his inheritance.” 6 And the redeemer said, “I am not able to redeem for myself, lest I ruin my inheritance. You redeem for yourself my kinsman-redemption, for I am not able to redeem it.”
Some see hints in the text and Jewish tradition holds that Ruth was extremely beautiful. Why might the unnamed close relative have not wanted to redeem Ruth?
7 (Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning the kinsman-redemption and transfer of property: to confirm the matter, a man removed his sandal and gave it to his fellow countryman. This was the manner of attesting in Israel.)
When was Ruth written?
8 So the redeemer said to Boaz, “Acquire it for yourself,” and he removed his sandal. 9 And Boaz said to the elders and all of the people, “You are witnesses today that I have acquired all that was for Elimelech and that was for Kilion and Mahlon from the hand of Naomi. 10 And also Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, I have acquired as a wife, to raise up the name of the dead over his inheritance, so that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his relatives and from the gate of his birth place. You are witnesses today.”
Again, the purpose of redeeming the land and marrying Ruth is that “the name of the dead may not be cut off from his relatives and from the gate of his birth place. You are witnesses today” [v10]. The name of this family will never leave Bethlehem. HUGE plot clue!
All the people bless Ruth!
11 And all of the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May YHWH make the woman coming into your house as Rachel and as Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you have strength in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem. 12 And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah from the offspring that YHWH will give to you from this young woman [nǎ·ʿǎrā(h)4].”
How did these people know of these future events? Can you think of parallel events in Scripture. What is there significance?
What house will Ruth build?5
The prophecy FULLfilled
In v12 Ruth is blessed and flagged up as a “young woman”. She will bear a son in Bethlehem against all the odds.
Who is THE young woman who will bear a son in Bethlehem against all the odds?
The prophecy will be partly REfulfilled, in the reign of King Ahaz [Isaiah 7:14]…
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you [pl.] a sign. Look! the
virginyoung woman [עַלְמָה,ʿǎl·mā(h)6] is with child and she is about to give birth to a son, and she shall call his name ‘God with us.’Isaiah 7:14
It is the LXX that translates the ʿǎl·mā(h) of Isaiah 7:14 as παρθένος and this is used by Matthew to show that the prophecy is FULLfilled by Mary…
23 “Behold, the virgin [παρθένος] will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel”…
Matthew 1:23
Is prophecy literal, i.e. having one meaning or fulfilled once? Can you think of other examples of non-literal prophecy?
Obed
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and YHWH enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son…16 And Naomi took the child and she put him on her bosom and became his nurse. 17a And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” And they called his name Obed.
Was it unusual for a grandmother to nurse her grandson? Was it unusual for the women of a neighbourhood to name a child? What is the writer flagging up?
The lineage of King Jesus
17b Obed was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
The prophecy [v12] was that Ruth’s house would be like the house of Perez so the writer of Ruth or a later scribe adds…
18 Now these are the descendants of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 and Hezron fathered Ram, and Ram fathered Amminadab, 20 and Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon, 21 and Salmon fathered Boaz, and Boaz fathered Obed, 22 and Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
Matthew provides an interesting detail…
3 …and Perez became the father of Hezron, and Hezron became the father of Aram, 4 and Aram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed became the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse became the father of David the king.
Matthew 1:3-6
What additional information is Matthew providing? Where might he have got this from?7
…and Matthew completes the genealogy to its glorious end…
…Joseph, the husband of Mary by whom [fem.] was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Matthew 1:16
More
Bible Project guide to the Book of Ruth.
James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
The brother-in-law [Latin “levir”] as redeemer is one of the provisions of the Torah to ensure that the land distributed to the people under Joshua would stay as assigned to each family. You were not supposed to be able to lose your inheritance through poverty. The levirate obligation extended only to the brother[s] of the deceased [Deuteronomy 25:5-10] [see also Genesis 38]. Extending this to other relatives may be case law [see Webb, Barry G., and D. A. Carson. Five Festal Garments: Christian Reflections on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther. IVP Academic, 2001, 54.].
Daniel Isaac Block, Judges, Ruth, vol. 6, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 708.
"...n.f. girl...especially as marriageable, Gn 24:14, 16, 28, 55, 57; 34:3, 12 (all J), Dt 22:15(×2), 16, 19, 20, 21, 24, 26(×2), 29; 1 K 1:3, 4; Est 2:4, 7, 8, 9, 12(×2), 13; specif. virgin נ׳ בְּתוּלָה Ju 21:12; Dt 22:23, 28; 1 K 1:2; Est 2:2, 3 (cf. Dt 22:15b, 20); נ׳ מְאֹרָשָׂה betrothed girl Dt 22:25, 27..." Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 655.
Rachel and Leah “built the house of Israel” [v10]. Ruth will build another, or new, house of Israel, i.e. Jesus.
"עַלְמָה (ʿǎl·mā(h)): n.fem...young woman, i.e., sexually mature female of marriageable age, which may or may not be sexually active (Ge 24:43; Ex 2:8; Ps 68:26[EB 25]; Pr 30:19; SS 1:3; 6:8; Isa 7:14+), note: context will demand or suggest if the young woman is sexually active.." James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
The source is lost but the information reliable as it is in the canon.