The Kinsman Redeemer: Boaz, Ruth, and the Right to Buy Back
Week 4 of 5 in The Gospel in the Old Testament · next: Jesus, Priest in the Order of Melchizedek
Ruth is a short book about a family that lost everything and got it back. A famine drives Elimelech's family from Bethlehem to Moab. The men die. Naomi comes home saying, "I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty" (Ruth 1:21, ESV). By the last chapter the land is bought back, the widow is married, a son is born, and his grandson is David. The man who does it is a גֹּאֵל (goel), a kinsman redeemer, and the book uses that word and its relatives 23 times.
In one sentence: Boaz uses a kinsman's right to buy back what Naomi's family lost and to raise up the dead man's name, and the son born of it is a redeemer whose line runs to David and to Jesus, the Kinsman who buys back His people with His own blood.
Key Takeaways
(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)
Types & Prophecy
Boaz is a type of Christ, and the type has edges. He is a kinsman with the right to redeem (Leviticus 25:25), the will to pay (Ruth 3:13; 4:9-10), and a bride he takes to himself (4:13). The New Testament gives Jesus both halves of the office. He shares our flesh: "he is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11, ESV). He redeems at a price: "the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:19, ESV). The type stops where Boaz stops. Boaz buys back land and a name; Christ buys back people.
A prophecy uses the same word. "A Redeemer will come to Zion" (Isaiah 59:20, ESV) is גּוֹאֵל, goel. Paul quotes the verse of Israel's future salvation (Romans 11:26).
Lessons about Jesus
- Jesus became your kinsman. "God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4-5, ESV).
- Jesus was willing. The nearer redeemer said, "I cannot redeem it" (Ruth 4:6, ESV). Jesus was "made like his brothers in every respect ... to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17, ESV).
- Jesus is the Redeemer of the line Ruth began. The women call Ruth's son a redeemer (4:14-15), and Matthew traces Jesus through "Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth" (Matthew 1:5, ESV).
Memory verses
✝️ Ruth 4:14 (ESV)
14 Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!
✝️ 1 Peter 1:18-19 (ESV)
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Be Transformed
- Think. You were bought back at a price, by a Kinsman who chose to pay it (1 Peter 1:18-19). Your standing rests on His willingness.
- Attitude. Come to Him the way Ruth came to Boaz, plainly: "Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer" (Ruth 3:9, ESV).
- Do. Find one person this week who has come back empty (1:21) — a widow, a newcomer, someone grieving — and do one specific, costly thing for them.
Prayer
Father, you are the God who does not leave His people without a redeemer. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus, born of woman, to be our Kinsman, and for buying us back with His precious blood. We come to Him as Ruth came to Boaz and ask Him to cover us. Make us people who redeem what we can for those around us, because we have been redeemed.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Study outline
- The world of the book. Judges, famine, and who wrote it.
- What a goel was. The office in the Law, the word in Hebrew and Greek.
- Two laws, one practice. Land redemption and the levirate duty, with Tamar and the sandal.
- The threshing floor. Ruth names Boaz a redeemer and asks him to marry her.
- At the gate. The nearer redeemer, the reading split at 4:5, and the witnesses.
- The Moabite question. The case on both sides.
- The redeemer who is born. Ruth 4:13-17, and the line to David.
- What the type rests on, and where it stops.
- Discussion questions. Six, for a group or on your own.
The world of the book
"In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab" (Ruth 1:1, ESV). Judges ends on its own verdict of those days: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25, ESV). Bethlehem — beth lechem, house of bread — has no bread.
The author is unnamed. Rabbinic tradition names Samuel (b. Baba Bathra 14a-15b). The ESV Study Bible dates the writing after David became king, because the genealogy of 4:17-22 treats his kingship as established and 4:7 explains a custom of "former times in Israel" (introduction to Ruth). The setting is the judges' era; the date of writing is uncertain.
Three laws shape the story:
| Institution | Where it is given | What it provides |
|---|---|---|
| Gleaning | Leviticus 19:9-10 | The poor and the sojourner may gather what the harvesters leave |
| The goel | Leviticus 25:25 | A near relative buys back family land that has been sold |
| Levirate duty | Deuteronomy 25:5-10 | A surviving brother marries his brother's widow to preserve the dead brother's name |
What a goel was
The office in the Law
גֹּאֵל (goel, H1350; "go-EL") is the participle of גָּאַל (gaʾal, H1350, TWOT root 300), "to redeem" or "buy back." In Ruth the verb and participle occur 21 times, and the noun גְּאֻלָּה (geʾullah, H1353, "right of redemption") twice more (4:6, 7). That is the ESV Study Bible's count of 23, and the word first appears when Naomi hears Boaz's name (2:20) and last when the women name the child (4:14).
The office rests on one sentence of God's: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine" (Leviticus 25:23, ESV). Redemption gives God's gift back to the family He gave it to. The next verses name who does it — "his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold" (25:25, ESV) — and in what order: a brother, "or his uncle or his cousin ... or a close relative from his clan" (25:48-49, ESV). That order is why Boaz says at 3:12, "there is a redeemer nearer than I" (ESV).
The office reached beyond land. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible lists its duties: buying back a relative sold into slavery for debt (Leviticus 25:47-55), avenging a murdered relative (Numbers 35:12, 19-27), and righting wrongs a relative could not right himself (note on Ruth 2:20). Job reaches for the last of these: "For I know that my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25, ESV). Jeremiah shows the land duty working, when his cousin comes to him with "the right of redemption by purchase is yours" (Jeremiah 32:7, ESV).
Right and willingness are two things, and Ruth turns on the gap between them. Boaz has the right, but a nearer man has it first: "if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the LORD lives, I will redeem you" (Ruth 3:13, ESV).
The word in Greek
The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, renders goel in Ruth as ἀγχιστεύς (anchisteus), "the one near" (3:9, 12; 4:6, 14). At Leviticus 25:25 it puts both ideas side by side: ὁ ἀγχιστεύων, the one who is near, λυτρώσεται, shall redeem. Peter uses that second verb for you: ἐλυτρώθητε, "you were ransomed ... with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19, ESV). The Greek Bible holds the two halves of the office together — kin, and buying back — and Peter's word for your redemption is the Levitical one.
Two laws, one practice
Ruth joins land redemption to the levirate duty. The levirate law reads: "the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife" (Deuteronomy 25:5, ESV), and "the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel" (25:6, ESV).
The ESV Study Bible describes Ruth as "two legal institutions combined in one practice (which the Law of Moses does not require)" (introduction to Ruth). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible adds that the legislation says nothing of taking the widow as part of redemption, though Israelites "sometimes understood a connection between the two" (note on 2:20). Boaz is not Mahlon's brother, so he acts from the wider family's duty, beyond the letter of either law.
Scripture's other levirate story sits inside Ruth's own blessing. The elders pray, "may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah" (Ruth 4:12, ESV). Tamar's case began with Judah telling Onan to "perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother" (Genesis 38:8, ESV). Both women, Tamar and Ruth, are named in Matthew's genealogy (Matthew 1:3, 5).
The sandal shows the two customs side by side. In Deuteronomy the widow pulls the sandal off the brother who refuses "and spit[s] in his face" (25:9, ESV) — a public shame. In Ruth the redeemer who steps aside draws off his own sandal and hands it over, because "this was the manner of attesting in Israel" (Ruth 4:7, ESV). The ESV Study Bible calls Deuteronomy's rite "a different but related custom" (note on 4:7-8).
The threshing floor
Naomi sees the redeemer
When Ruth comes home from Boaz's field, Naomi says, "May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead! ... The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers" (2:20, ESV). "Kindness" is חֶסֶד (chesed, H2617; "KHEH-sed"), covenant loyalty. Whose kindness is it, the LORD's or Boaz's? The ESV Study Bible calls the ambiguity "probably intentional; that is, the answer is both" (note on 2:20); the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible reads it as "probably" the LORD's. Either way, God's loyalty reaches Naomi through a man's. Chesed appears three times in Ruth: Naomi's blessing (1:8), this verse, and the threshing floor (3:10).
Ruth names the office
At midnight Ruth answers Boaz:
✝️ Ruth 3:9 (ESV)
9 He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer."
"Wings" is כָּנָף (kanaph, H3671), the edge of a cloak spread over a woman to claim her in marriage. It is the word Boaz used when he blessed her by the God "under whose wings you have come to take refuge" (2:12, ESV), and the ESV Study Bible reads 3:9 as calling that blessing back (note on 3:9). Ruth asks Boaz to be the answer to his own prayer. The last word of her sentence is the office itself: goel. A Moabite widow is the first person in the book to join the redeemer's duty to marriage. The Bride of Christ follows the betrothal gesture through Ezekiel 16:8.
Boaz answers with chesed — "You have made this last kindness greater than the first" (3:10, ESV) — and with a title that matches his own. The narrator introduced him as אִישׁ גִּבּוֹר חַיִל (ish gibbor chayil), "a worthy man" (2:1, ESV); he calls her אֵשֶׁת חַיִל (eshet chayil), "a worthy woman" (3:11, ESV). Then he binds himself with an oath, "as the LORD lives" (3:13).
At the gate
The nearer redeemer
Boaz sits at the gate, calls ten elders, and hails the nearer redeemer with פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי (peloni almoni, H6423 + H492), "a certain one." The ESV renders it "friend" (4:1); the CSB footnotes "Mr. So-and-so." The narrator withholds his name.
The man first agrees to buy the field. Then Boaz tells him what comes with it, and the Hebrew of that verse has two readings. The written text reads קניתי, "I acquire" — Boaz announcing that he himself takes Ruth. The text as read, which the ESV follows, has "you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance" (4:5, ESV), addressed to the nearer redeemer. On either reading, the field and the name of the dead go together. So the man withdraws:
✝️ Ruth 4:6 (ESV)
6 Then the redeemer said, "I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it."
A son born to Ruth would carry Mahlon's name and inherit the land he paid for. The narrator states that cost only for this man. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible thinks it "an outcome that Boaz might also face" (note on 4:6); the text itself is silent on Boaz's cost.
Two things bought, before witnesses
✝️ Ruth 4:9-10 (ESV)
9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day."
"I have bought" is קָנִיתִי (qaniti, H7069), from קָנָה (qanah, H7069), to acquire. The people answer, "We are witnesses," and bless the marriage by Rachel, Leah and Perez (4:11-12).
The Moabite question
Ruth is called "the Moabite" five times (1:22; 2:2, 21; 4:5, 10), and the Law says, "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever" (Deuteronomy 23:3, ESV). Yet Ruth marries into Judah and becomes David's great-grandmother. This is contested, and there is a case on both sides.
The case that the law never barred her. The Mishnah reads Deuteronomy's ban as applying to the men: "An Ammonite and a Moabite are forbidden [to enter into the congregation of the Lord] and their prohibition is for ever. However, their women are permitted at once" (m. Yevamot 8:3). Ruth has also bound herself to Israel's God: "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16, ESV). Isaiah later welcomes "the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD" (Isaiah 56:6, ESV).
The case that the ban reached women. After the exile, Nehemiah reads Deuteronomy 23 aloud — "no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God" (Nehemiah 13:1, ESV) — and applies it to Jews "who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab" (13:23, ESV). Nehemiah read the law as touching marriage to Moabite women.
Ruth itself never argues the point. It calls her a Moabite at the moment of redemption (4:5, 10) and lets the genealogy speak.
The redeemer who is born
"So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife ... and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son" (4:13, ESV). The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible counts this as the second of only two direct acts of God in the book (the first is when "the LORD had visited his people and given them food," 1:6, ESV).
Then the women speak to Naomi (4:14, quoted above), and the next verse says who the redeemer is: "He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you ... has given birth to him" (4:15, ESV). The redeemer they bless the LORD for is the baby on Naomi's lap (4:16). The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible sees here "another gōʾēl besides Boaz," and reads David's line as "a lineage of guardian-redeemers," of whom "the guardian-redeemer par excellence is Jesus Christ" (note on 4:14).
"They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David" (4:17, ESV). The book ends on the name: "Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David" (4:22, ESV). Matthew carries it on: "Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse" (Matthew 1:5, ESV), in the same verse that names Rahab.
This shows that God does not leave His people without a redeemer. He kept one in the family line, generation after generation, until He sent His Son Jesus.
What the type rests on, and where it stops
What it rests on
The typology rests on Scripture's own pairings:
- One God is both husband and redeemer. "For your Maker is your husband ... and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer" (Isaiah 54:5, ESV). Ruth's two roles for Boaz are the two titles Isaiah gives the LORD in one verse.
- The New Testament applies a goel text to Christ. "A Redeemer will come to Zion" (Isaiah 59:20, ESV) is quoted by Paul, "The Deliverer will come from Zion," of the day "all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26, ESV).
- The Redeemer became kin. "He is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11, ESV); "God sent forth his Son, born of woman ... to redeem" (Galatians 4:4-5, ESV).
- He paid. "Not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19, ESV).
Where it stops
Boaz buys back a field and a family name. Christ buys back persons, and He pays with His blood. The ESV Study Bible keeps the two uses of the word apart: the kinsman sense of gaʾal "is separate from the way the same word is used for the Lord 'redeeming' Israel" (note on 3:12-13). So the type rests on the pattern of the office — kin, right, willingness, price, a bride — and on the New Testament's own words, and a single Hebrew word carries none of the weight alone.
This shows that God redeems at His own cost, through a Kinsman He provides. You "are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24, ESV). Boaz had the right and chose to use it. Your Kinsman had the right, chose to use it, and paid the whole price Himself.
Discussion Questions
- The language. The Septuagint calls the goel ἀγχιστεύς, "the one near," and Peter's word for your ransom, ἐλυτρώθητε (1 Peter 1:18), is the Levitical word for buying back. What does each half — nearness and price — add to how you understand Christ's redemption?
- The text in its context. At Ruth 4:5 the Hebrew can read "you acquire" or "I acquire." How does each reading change how you picture Boaz at the gate?
- Christ. Hebrews says Jesus "is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11). What does it mean to you that your Redeemer chose to become your kin?
- The child. The redeemer the women praise is a newborn (Ruth 4:14-15). What does it say about God's plan that the answer to Naomi's emptiness arrives as a child in David's line?
- The hard part. Deuteronomy 23:3 says of Moabites, "none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever"; Nehemiah applies the ban to marriages with Moabite women (Nehemiah 13:1, 23), while the Mishnah admits Moabite women at once (m. Yevamot 8:3). How do you read Ruth's pledge, "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16), alongside Deuteronomy 23:3?
- Be transformed. Naomi came back "empty" (Ruth 1:21). What would it cost you to redeem something for someone near you who has come back the same way?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path
The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.
The Kinsman Redeemer: Boaz, Ruth, and the Right to Buy Back
Ruth 3:9-13; Ruth 4:1-17The point Boaz uses a kinsman's right to buy back what Naomi's family lost and to raise up the dead man's name, and the son born of it is a redeemer whose line runs to David and to Jesus, the Kinsman who buys back His people with His own blood.
Ask: what comes to mind when you hear The Kinsman Redeemer
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Ruth 3:9-13 9“Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, for you are a kinsman-redeemer.” 10Then Boaz said, “May the LORD bless you, my daughter. You have shown more kindness now than before, because you have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. 11And now do not be afraid, my daughter. I will do for you whatever you request, since all my fellow townspeople know that you are a woman of noble character. 12Yes, it is true that I am a kinsman-redeemer, but there is a redeemer nearer than I. 13Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, good. Let him redeem you. But if he does not want to redeem you, as surely as the LORD lives, I will. Now lie here until morning.”
Ruth 4:1-17 1Meanwhile, Boaz went to the gate and sat down there. Soon the kinsman-redeemer of whom he had spoken came along, and Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. 2Then Boaz took ten of the elders of the city and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3And he said to the kinsman-redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the land of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4I thought I should inform you that you may buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do so. But if you will not redeem it, tell me so I may know, because there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you.” “I will redeem it,” he replied. 5Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and also from Ruth the Moabitess, you must also acquire the widow of the deceased in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.” 6The kinsman-redeemer replied, “I cannot redeem it myself, or I would jeopardize my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I cannot redeem it.” 7Now in former times in Israel, concerning the redemption or exchange of property, to make any matter legally binding a man would remove his sandal and give it to the other party, and this was a confirmation in Israel. 8So the kinsman-redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” 9At this, Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon. 10Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to raise up the name of the deceased through his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his brothers or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today.”
Also read: Ruth 4:1-17 from 4:11
The Kinsman Redeemer: Boaz, Ruth, and the Right to Buy Back
- The world of the book. Judges, famine, and who wrote it.
- What a goel was. The office in the Law, the word in Hebrew and Greek.
- Two laws, one practice. Land redemption and the levirate duty, with Tamar and the sandal.
- The threshing floor. Ruth names Boaz a redeemer and asks him to marry her.
- At the gate. The nearer redeemer, the reading split at 4:5, and the witnesses.
- The Moabite question. The case on both sides.
- The redeemer who is born. Ruth 4:13-17, and the line to David.
- What the type rests on, and where it stops.
The Kinsman Redeemer: Boaz, Ruth, and the Right to Buy Back
1The language. The Septuagint calls the goel ἀγχιστεύς, "the one near," and Peter's word for your ransom, ἐλυτρώθητε (1 Peter 1:18), is the Levitical word for buying back. What does each half — nearness and price — add to how you understand Christ's redemption?
2The child. The redeemer the women praise is a newborn (Ruth 4:14-15). What does it say about God's plan that the answer to Naomi's emptiness arrives as a child in David's line?
3The text in its context. At Ruth 4:5 the Hebrew can read "you acquire" or "I acquire." How does each reading change how you picture Boaz at the gate?
4The hard part. Deuteronomy 23:3 says of Moabites, "none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever"; Nehemiah applies the ban to marriages with Moabite women (Nehemiah 13:1, 23), while the Mishnah admits Moabite women at once (m. Yevamot 8:3). How do you read Ruth's pledge, "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16), alongside Deuteronomy 23:3?
5Christ. Hebrews says Jesus "is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11). What does it mean to you that your Redeemer chose to become your kin?
The Kinsman Redeemer: Boaz, Ruth, and the Right to Buy Back
6Be transformed. Naomi came back "empty" (Ruth 1:21). What would it cost you to redeem something for someone near you who has come back the same way?
- Think. You were bought back at a price, by a Kinsman who chose to pay it (1 Peter 1:18-19). Your standing rests on His willingness.
- Attitude. Come to Him the way Ruth came to Boaz, plainly: "Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer" (Ruth 3:9, ESV).
- Do. Find one person this week who has come back empty (1:21) — a widow, a newcomer, someone grieving — and do one specific, costly thing for them.
Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!
Ruth 4:14 (ESV)Father, you are the God who does not leave His people without a redeemer. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus, born of woman, to be our Kinsman, and for buying us back with His precious blood. We come to Him as Ruth came to Boaz and ask Him to cover us. Make us people who redeem what we can for those around us, because we have been redeemed.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
The Kinsman Redeemer: Boaz, Ruth, and the Right to Buy Back
Ruth 3:9-13; Ruth 4:1-17Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear The Kinsman Redeemer
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Read it aloud Ruth 3:9-13; Ruth 4:1-17
1The language. The Septuagint calls the goel ἀγχιστεύς, "the one near," and Peter's word for your ransom, ἐλυτρώθητε (1 Peter 1:18), is the Levitical word for buying back. What does each half — nearness and price — add to how you understand Christ's redemption?
2The child. The redeemer the women praise is a newborn (Ruth 4:14-15). What does it say about God's plan that the answer to Naomi's emptiness arrives as a child in David's line?
3The text in its context. At Ruth 4:5 the Hebrew can read "you acquire" or "I acquire." How does each reading change how you picture Boaz at the gate?
4The hard part. Deuteronomy 23:3 says of Moabites, "none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever"; Nehemiah applies the ban to marriages with Moabite women (Nehemiah 13:1, 23), while the Mishnah admits Moabite women at once (m. Yevamot 8:3). How do you read Ruth's pledge, "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16), alongside Deuteronomy 23:3?
5Christ. Hebrews says Jesus "is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11). What does it mean to you that your Redeemer chose to become your kin?
6Be transformed. Naomi came back "empty" (Ruth 1:21). What would it cost you to redeem something for someone near you who has come back the same way?
- Think. You were bought back at a price, by a Kinsman who chose to pay it (1 Peter 1:18-19). Your standing rests on His willingness.
- Attitude. Come to Him the way Ruth came to Boaz, plainly: "Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer" (Ruth 3:9, ESV).
- Do. Find one person this week who has come back empty (1:21) — a widow, a newcomer, someone grieving — and do one specific, costly thing for them.
The Kinsman Redeemer: Boaz, Ruth, and the Right to Buy Back
The point Boaz uses a kinsman's right to buy back what Naomi's family lost and to raise up the dead man's name, and the son born of it is a redeemer whose line runs to David and to Jesus, the Kinsman who buys back His people with His own blood.
References & Recommended Reading
- ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — introduction to Ruth (authorship, date, the 23 occurrences, "two legal institutions combined in one practice") and notes on 2:20, 3:9, 3:12-13 and 4:7-8; ESV verse text throughout. Quoted briefly with attribution.
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on Ruth 2:20, 4:6, 4:13 and 4:14.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan) — note on Ruth 2:20 (the duties of the guardian-redeemer).
- CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible (Holman) — footnote on Ruth 4:1.
- Mishnah Yevamot 8:3, quoted from "Mishnah Yomit" translated by Dr. Joshua Kulp, licensed
CC-BY, retrieved through
references/build/sefaria.pyfrom the Sefaria-Export dataset. - Original-language data from this project's
bible-text.db— MACULA Hebrew (WLC) and morphhb for גֹּאֵל (goel, H1350), גְּאֻלָּה (geʾullah, H1353), חֶסֶד (chesed, H2617), כָּנָף (kanaph, H3671), חַיִל (chayil, H2428) and קָנָה (qanah, H7069), including the Kethiv and Qere at Ruth 4:5; Septuagint lemmas for ἀγχιστεύς, ἀγχιστεύω and λυτρόω; unfoldingWord interlinear for 1 Peter 1:18 and Isaiah 59:20; TWOT root 300.
On this site
- The Bride of Christ — the betrothal pattern, including the goel behind the purchase and the kanaph gesture at Ezekiel 16:8.