Why did Boaz marry Ruth instead of the other redeemer?
I thought of several questions while I was reading Ruth, but the one I wanted answered most was why Ruth and Boaz were married. There was a man who was a redeemer for her family before Boaz who the bible never named and never explained why he said no to buying the piece of land from Naomi and marrying Ruth. This man was only mentioned when Boaz went to him to ask if he wanted to buy the land and marry Ruth. The two men had a short conversation in the first paragraph of chapter four. Boaz explained the situation to the man and that if he did not accept this, then he would. The redeemer replied to his question by telling him, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” Nothing more was said about this man and Boaz immediately bought the land. The importance of this story was to show that people did not have to strictly keep to the first arranges of marriage. Two people were able to work out their situation to be married.
Ruth met Boaz while she was harvesting barley. She had crossed over into his fields and was with his women who were also harvesting barley. Boaz saw her and allowed her to stay with his women and told the men around not to bother her. He fed her dinner and gave her leftovers to take home with her. Ruth told her mother-in-law, Naomi, about the kind man and what he did for her. Naomi told her that Boaz was a relative of theirs and was pleased that he was going to keep her safe while she was in the barley fields. She sent Ruth to be with Boaz at night and told her to reveal her presence there after he was drunk. Ruth announced her presence to Boaz, but because there was a redeemer that was more closely related to the family than he was, he told her if the other redeemer would not take her then he would. My first answer to why the conversation in the fourth chapter to discuss with him that he and Ruth wanted to be married. This would have had to be a private conversation between the two men unlike the one they had with the witnesses and the elders. Naomi may have also been in this private conversation because she also wanted Ruth to marry Boaz. An article from the torah.org mentioned that Boaz might have been planning to arrange his marriage to Ruth and that was his reasoning for letting her stay with him the night that she offered herself to him. The rest of my research gave reasons for why the first redeemer would not want to marry Ruth. The article on enduringword.com explained that the redeemer would not want to bother with dividing another inheritance with future children that he might have in a new marriage. His statement “lest I impair my own inheritance” is explained again in an article on agapebiblestudy.com. It could have simply been inconvenient to his inheritance to add more by another marriage. Boaz was more than willing to marry Ruth and kept his word to her that he would become her redeemer.
http://www.torah.org/advanced/mikra/5757/bm/Ruth6.html
http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0804.htm
http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/Ruth/Ruth_Lesson_3.htm
Ruth met Boaz while she was harvesting barley. She had crossed over into his fields and was with his women who were also harvesting barley. Boaz saw her and allowed her to stay with his women and told the men around not to bother her. He fed her dinner and gave her leftovers to take home with her. Ruth told her mother-in-law, Naomi, about the kind man and what he did for her. Naomi told her that Boaz was a relative of theirs and was pleased that he was going to keep her safe while she was in the barley fields. She sent Ruth to be with Boaz at night and told her to reveal her presence there after he was drunk. Ruth announced her presence to Boaz, but because there was a redeemer that was more closely related to the family than he was, he told her if the other redeemer would not take her then he would. My first answer to why the conversation in the fourth chapter to discuss with him that he and Ruth wanted to be married. This would have had to be a private conversation between the two men unlike the one they had with the witnesses and the elders. Naomi may have also been in this private conversation because she also wanted Ruth to marry Boaz. An article from the torah.org mentioned that Boaz might have been planning to arrange his marriage to Ruth and that was his reasoning for letting her stay with him the night that she offered herself to him. The rest of my research gave reasons for why the first redeemer would not want to marry Ruth. The article on enduringword.com explained that the redeemer would not want to bother with dividing another inheritance with future children that he might have in a new marriage. His statement “lest I impair my own inheritance” is explained again in an article on agapebiblestudy.com. It could have simply been inconvenient to his inheritance to add more by another marriage. Boaz was more than willing to marry Ruth and kept his word to her that he would become her redeemer.
http://www.torah.org/advanced/mikra/5757/bm/Ruth6.html
http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0804.htm
http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/Ruth/Ruth_Lesson_3.htm