Ruth 4:5
“Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Boaz reveals that redeeming the land also means marrying Ruth to continue the dead man's name.
What Does Ruth 4:5 Mean?
Now Boaz reveals the full weight of the obligation. To buy the field from Naomi is also to take Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, in marriage, so as to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. The redeemer must not only purchase land but father a son who will carry on the deceased's family line and hold the inheritance in his name. The duty of land and the duty to the widow are bound together.
This is the heart of the kinsman-redeemer's calling: not merely acquiring property, but restoring a family, giving a future to the widow and a name to the dead. It is costly, self-giving redemption, where the redeemer's own resources serve another's restoration rather than his own gain. Here the gospel shines through the ancient custom, for true redemption always costs the redeemer and restores the lost. Boaz frames the choice rightly: to redeem is to take on another's burden as one's own. The full price of love is now laid bare before the nearer kinsman.
In the Original Language
yabam (יָבָם), 'raise up the name' — the duty to marry a kinsman's widow and father an heir to continue the dead man's line and inheritance.