o her mother-in-law, Naomi said, "Is it you, my
daughter?" Then Ruth told Naomi all that the man had done for her. She
said, "He gave me these six measures of barley; for he said, 'Do not go
to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'" Naomi said, "Wait quietly, my
daughter, until you know how this will turn out, for the man will not
rest unless he settles it all to-day."

Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat down. Just then the near relative
of whom Boaz had spoken came along. To him Boaz said, "Ho!" calling him
by name, "come here and sit down." So he stopped and sat down. Boaz also
took ten of the town elders and said, "Sit down here." So they sat down.

Then he said to the near relative, "Naomi, who has come back from the
country of Moab, is offering for sale the piece of land which belonged
to our relative Elimelech, and I thought that I would lay the matter
before you, and ask you to buy it in the presence of these men who sit
here and of the elders of my people. If you will buy it and so keep it
in the family, do so; but if not, then tell me, that I may know; for no
one but you has the right to buy it, and I am next to you." He said, "I
will buy it."

Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you must also
marry Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, that a son may be born to
bear his name and to receive this field." The near relative said, "I
cannot buy it for myself, for fear I should lose what already belongs to
me. You take my right of buying it as a relative, for I cannot do so."

Now in those days this was the custom in Israel: to make an agreement
between two men the one drew off his shoe and gave it to the other. So
when the near relative said to Boaz, "Buy it for yourself," Boaz drew
off the man's shoe.

Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, "You are witnesses
at this time that I have bought all that was Elimelech's and all that
was Chilion's and Mahlon's from Naomi. Moreover, I have secured Ruth,
the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife so that she may have a
son who will receive this land and carry on Mahlon's name. You are
witnesses this day."

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, "We are
witnesses. May Jehovah make the woman who is coming into your house like
Rachel and Leah, and make you also famous in Bethlehem."

So Boaz married Ruth, and she became his wife; and Jehovah gave to her a
son. Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be