Ruth 4

¹Booz therefore went up to the gate, and sat there. And when he had seen the nigh kinsman pass by, of whom the talk was had before, he said to him: Turn in a little while, and sit here: calling him by his name. Who turned in, and sat.

²And Booz taking ten men of the city, said to them: Sit ye here.

³Who sitting down, he spake to the nigh kinsman: Noemi, who is returned from the country of Moab, will sell the part of the field belonging to our brother Elimelech.

⁴Which I would thee to understand, and would tell thee before all that sit, and the ancients of my people. If thou wilt possess it by the right of nigh kindred, buy, and possess it. But if it please thee not, tell me the same, that I may know what I ought to do. For there is no nigh kinsman saving thee, which art first, and me, who am second. But he answered: I will buy the field.

⁵To whom Booz said: When thou shalt buy the field at the woman's hand, thou must take also Ruth the Moabite, which was the wife of the deceased: that thou mayest raise up the name of thy kinsman in his inheritance.

⁶Who answered: I yield my right of nigh kindred: for I may not abolish the posterity of mine own family. Do thou use my privilege, which I profess that I do willingly forgo.

⁷And this in old time was the manner in Israel between kinsmen, that if at any time one yielded to another his right: that the grant might be sure, the man put off his shoe, & gave it to his neighbour, this was a testimony of yielding in Israel.

⁸Booz therefore said to his kinsman: Take off thy shoe. Which immediately he loosed from his foot.

⁹But to the ancients, & the whole people he said: You are witnesses this day, that I have purchased all things which were Elimelech's, and Chelion's and Mahalon's, Noemi delivering them:

¹⁰& have taken in marriage Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahalon, that I may raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance, lest his name be abolished out of his family and brethren and people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing.

¹¹All the people that was in the gate answered, & the ancients: We are witnesses: Our Lord make this woman, which entereth into thy house, as Rachel, and Lia, which builded the house of Israel: that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and may have a famous name in Bethlehem:

¹²and that thy house may be, as the house of Phares, whom Thamar bare to Judas, of the seed which our Lord shall give thee of this young woman.

¹³Booz therefore took Ruth, and had her to wife: and went in unto her and our Lord gave her to conceive, and to bear a son.

¹⁴And the women said to Noemi: Blessed be our Lord, which hath not suffered that there should fail a successor of thy family: That his name should be called in Israel.

¹⁵And thou shouldst have one that may comfort thy soul, and cherish thy old age. For of thy daughter in law is he born, which will love thee: and much better is she to thee, than if thou hadst seven sons.

¹⁶And Noemi taking the child put it in her bosom, & did the office of a nurse & of one that should carry him.

¹⁷And the women her neighbours congratulating her, & saying: There is a son born to Noemi: called his name Obed: this is the father of Isai, the father of David.

¹⁸These are the generations of Phares: Phares begat Esron,

¹⁹Esron begat Aram: Aram begat Aminadab,

²⁰Aminadab begat Nahasson, Nahasson begat Salmon,

²¹Salmon begat Booz, Booz begat Obed,

²²Obed begat Isai, Isai begat David.