Charles Ellicott Commentary Ruth 4

Went up. This was because the town stood on a hill; similarly, in Ruth 3:3, Ruth is told to go down to the threshing floor.

The kinsman. This refers to the Goel .

Turn aside. The imperative form here has an exhortative sense, meaning, "Please turn aside and sit down."

Such a one. In Hebrew, this is p’loni almoni. This phrase is used like the English "so-and-so" or "such-and-such" for names that are considered either unnecessary or undesirable to mention. Its derivation is likely from palah (to mark out, separate, distinguish) and alam (to hide), conveying the dual idea of someone who is pointed out yet, in a sense, concealed. The phrase is also used for places (1 Samuel 21:2; 2 Kings 6:8).

It is not clear why the name is not recorded here. Possibly, it was not known to the writer, or it may have been considered unworthy of recording, since this person neglected his plain duty in refusing to raise up seed to the dead.

We know nothing of this unnamed individual except that the offer of redemption was set before him and he refused it, an offer that involved the glory of being an ancestor of the Christ who was to be born in ages to come.

Naomi sells ... —Rather, the portion of land, which belonged to our brother Elimelech, has Naomi sold.

The present tense of the English Version seems to suggest that the sale is taking place at this particular time. However, the meaning is clearly that Naomi, as the representative of the dead Elimelech, had, insofar as it was possible for an Israelite to part with a family estate, sold the land to obtain in some way the means of living.

In the year of Jubilee, the property would return to the family on which it was, so to speak, settled; but Boaz proposes to the Goel that he should redeem the property at once.

We might perhaps compare this to the owner of a freehold buying the remainder of a lease from a leaseholder under him, so that he may occupy his own estate.

And I thought ... —literally, and I said I will uncover your ear.

The inhabitants. —This should perhaps rather be, those who are sitting here [the Hebrew word yashabh has the two meanings of dwelling and sitting, see, for example, Genesis 23:10, where the latter meaning should certainly be taken]. So the Septuagint, Peshito, and Vulgate.

If you will not. —The current Hebrew text has here, if he will not, which is clearly an error for the second person, which is read by a large number of Hebrew manuscripts, and by all the ancient versions.

I will redeem it. —He is willing enough to redeem the land as a good investment, forgetting, until reminded, the necessary previous condition. It involves marrying Ruth, and this he declines to do.

What day ... —When the person had been bought out to whom Naomi had sold the land (this sale lasting until the Year of Jubilee would restore it to her family), Naomi’s own claim on the land remained, and afterwards that of Ruth, as the widow of Elimelech’s son. But further, this last carried with it the necessity of taking Ruth to wife, so that a child might be born to inherit, as Mahlon’s son, Mahlon’s inheritance.

Lest I mar ... —The redemption of the land would involve the spending of money, drawn away from the Goel’s own estate; but the land thus acquired would not belong to the Goel himself, but to the son he should have by Ruth, who would still be, in the eyes of the law, the son of Mahlon. It would, therefore, be like mortgaging one’s own estate, and that for the benefit of another. Josephus and the Targum explain it by saying that he already had a wife, and feared the discord that might arise.