The Pulpit Commentary — Ruth — Section 63

nrnniago, the child "·oul<l be, heir of tho intei·est. He did not know that there wns property, just as if he had boon Machlon's in Boaz's heart a love that truly "seeketh ~on, o,en though the father should have not he1· own," but in honour prefers the othe.- and older sons by another wife. things of nnother. Yer. 6. - And the kinsman said, I am . Ver. 7.-And t~ia was formerly e. ouatom not able to perform, for myself, the kins- m I~rae~, on occe.s10~ of surrendering rights man's part, lest I eb.ould destroy my in- of kinship, or of eelhng and buying land, in herite.noo. Perform thon, for thyself, the order to confirm any matter· a man drew J..--:insm1m's part devolving on me, for I am oft' his shoe and gave it to the other con- not able to perform it. The moment thnt tracting party. This was attestation in Ruth was referred to, as the inseparable Israel. We give n. free transl11tion. The appurtenance of Elimelech's estate, a total custom was significant enough. He who change came over the feelings of the anony- sol~ land, ?r surrendered his right to act o.s mous relative and the spirit of liis dream. a kms~an m buying land, intimated by the He "could not," so he strongly put it, per- symbolical act of taking off his shoe and form the l..insman's part. The probability is hand_iug_ it to his friend, that he freely gave that he already had a family, but was a up his nght to walk upon the soil, in favour widower. This being the state of the case, of the person who had acquired the posses- it followed that if he should acquire Ruth sion. ~orre~ponding symbolicel acts, in along '\lith her father-in-law's property, there connection with the transfer of lands, have might be an addition, perhaps a numerous been commo~, and probably still are, in addition, to his family; and if so, then there many countries. No doubt the shoe after would be more to provide for during his life- being received, would be immediat~ly re- time. and at his death an increased sub- turned. dinsion of his patrimony. This, as he Ver. 8.-And the kinsman so.id to lloaz strongly put it, would be to "destroy" his Acquire ~or thyself; and drew oft' his shoe: patrimony, inasmuch as it might be frittered On the mstant that he said "Acquire for into insigni.fican t fractions. There can be thyself," viz., the land with its living appur- no reference, as the Chaldee Te.rgumist tenant, he drew off his shoe and presented it. ima,.,crined, to his fear of domestic dissensions. J ~seph~s allowed his imagination to run off Or, if he did indeed think of snch a casualty, WI~h hIS memory when, mixing up the his- he certainly did not give the idea expression torical case before us with the details of to Boaz e.nd the assessors. Cassel takes the ancient Levirate law (Dent. xxv. 7-9), another view. "It must be," he says, "her which were, in later times at all events more Moabitish nationality that forms the ground, honoured in the breach than in the observ- such as it is, of the kinsman's refusal ance, he represents Boaz as "bidding the Elimelech's misfortunes had been popularly woman loose the man's shoe and spit in his ascribed to his emigration to l\foab ; the face." The actual ceremony was not an death of Chilion and l\fachlon to their mar- insult, but a graphfo and inoffensive attest- riage with l\foabitish women. This it was ation. Yet it gradually wore out and was that had endangered their inheritance. The superseded. No vestige of it remained in goel fee.m a similar fate. He thinks that he the days of the writer, and the Chaldee Tar- ought not to take into his house a woman, ~ist seems to have been scarcely able to marriage with whom has already been visited realise that such ·a custom could ever have with the extinguish.ment of a family in existed. He represents the anonymous kins- Israel" But if this had been what he man as drawing off his "right-hand glove" referred to when he spoke of the " destruc- and handing it to Boaz. But take note of tion " of his inheritance, it was not much in the German word for" glove," viz., Hand- harmony with the benevolence which he schuh (a hand-shoe). owed to Boaz, and to which he so far gives Ver. 9.-And lloaz said to the elders and expression in the courtesy of his address, all the people, Ye are witnesses this day that he should have gratuitously urged upon that I have acquired the whole estate of his relative what he declined as dangerous Elimelech, and the whole estate of Chilion for himself. The expressions "for myself" and l'd:achlon, from the hand of Naomi. It is absolutely necessary that, at this part of and "for thyself" ('7- and :J?) are significant. the narrative, as well as in several other por• The anonymous relative does not conceal the tions, we read "between the verses." Naomi, idea that it would be only on the ground of either personally or by representative, must doing what would be Jo,• his <nJJn interest have ap_Peared on the scene, to surrender her that he could entertain for consideration the territonal rights and receive the value of the proposal of Naomi He likewise assumed estate that ha.d belonged to her. husband. that if Boaz should be willing to act the But the writer merges in his account these kinsman's part, it would be simply because coincidents, and hastens on to the consum- it could be turned to account for his own mation of his story. In the twofold expres- err. 1v. 1-22.] Tim BOOK OF RUTH. li'l