Boaz had slept with his grain at the threshing floor so he could keep an eye on his grain and rise early to work in the morning hours. But, in the morning Boaz goes immediately to the city gate of Bethlehem after Ruth’s encounter with him at the threshing floor the previous evening. In fact, Boaz is at the city gate waiting when the men of the city are leaving to go out to harvest the grain and work at the threshing floors.
Naomi’s dead husband owned land that would have passed as an inheritance to Naomi’s sons. The legal code of Israel stressed the importance of keeping the land and property in the family. If there were no sons (or, daughters) to inherit the property the whole estate would be offered to the next of kin who would redeem the property for the family. In this case part of the property was the financial responsibility to provide and care for the first man’s wife Naomi. This would be expected. But, in this case the dead son also had wife, Ruth, who had no children. The man who bought the estate would have to marry Ruth, produce a child through Ruth, and then allow that child to receive the inheritance of his grandfather (Naomi’s husband Elimeleck) and Ruth’s first husband, Mahlon (Ruth 4:10). Taking on the care and responsibility of Naomi, who was an older woman, was a financial responsibility, but it came with benefits of adding her property to the redeemer’s estate. But, taking Ruth as a wife, producing a child with her and then, handing that child the estate that had been purchased with money from your own children’s estate was not profitable. In fact, the kinsman who purchased Naomi’s estate would be investing money from his own estate which would then be given to Naomi’s grandson. Depending on the wealth of the kinsman redeemer this could actually wipe out an entire estate.
That morning Boaz waits at the city gate where everyone leaving the city would pass by on their way to the fields. When Boaz sees Naomi’s closest relative he calls to him, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” The phrase “my friend” is peloni ‘almoni in the Hebrew and simply means “Mr. No Name.” The writer of the book of Ruth does not want this man’s name revealed either because it is not important, he does not want the man’s name known or remembered, or because it is disgraceful not to step up and do your part as a kinsman redeemer.
Mr. No Name sits down by Boaz in Bethlehem’s city gate. Boaz then calls ten of the elders who are passing by to join him and Mr. No Name to serve as witnesses of this legal transaction that is about to take place.
When Boaz tells Mr. No Name that there is this opportunity to purchase some property and care for the widow, Mr. No Name responds using the emphatic pronoun in the literal Hebrew: “I, yes, I will redeem.” Mr. No Name sees this as a chance to invest some of his estate in order to add to his estate. He has stepped into the thinking Boaz apparently wanted him to, because the presentation of this legal case comes in two parts from Boaz. First was the investment into the property. But, second, is going to be the widow who needs a child in order to maintain the family’s estate that the kinsman redeemer is going to buy.
Presentation part two by Boaz includes the introduction of the dead son’s widow, who is a Moabite whose property you will be maintaining in order to preserve the dead man’s name! Could Boaz have painted a more bleak picture of Ruth than presenting her as a dead man’s widow and as a foreigner from Moab? That picture of Ruth, coupled with the fact that Mr. No Name is going to have to tap into his own estate to make this transaction, so that in the end, he can give the property to the son he has with this Moabite widow, is too much to ask. Mr. No Name admits, “I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
With that Mr. No Name removed his sandal and gave it to Boaz to legalize the transaction. The image presented by the removing of the sandal comes from two sources:
- Deuteronomy 25:7-10 explains that a widow who is rejected by her husband’s brother or closest relative will go to him in the city gate and remove his sandal and spit in his face for rejecting her.
- The Nuzi Tablets from this same time period use the image of the removed sandal as a legal handing over of the right to walk on the property being transferred. The Nuzi Tablets actually says that a man would “lift up his foot from his property” and he would have “placed the foot of the other man on it.” (It would be interesting to consider Genesis 13:17, Joshua 1:3, Deuteronomy 11:24 and Psalm 60:8; 108:9 in light of this legal symbol of transaction in regard to property.)
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