Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ruth 4:10
Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye [are] witnesses this day.
10. Moreover Ruth have I purchased ] do I buy, the same word and tense as in Rth 4:9. This was an additional and voluntary feature of the transaction, due to the goodwill of Boaz, and as such receives the applause and congratulations of the people.
to raise up the name of the dead ] One object of the marriage was to secure the preservation of the name of the dead (see on Rth 4:5); by a legal fiction the child of the marriage would be regarded as the son of Mahlon, Rth 4:17 (‘a son born to Naomi’).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Rth 4:10-11
Ruth the Moabitess . . . have I purchased to be my wife.
The marriage of Boaz and Ruth
Two features which stand prominent in this description make it valuable for all time.
1. There is the publicity by which the interesting transaction was distinguished. All the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The laws and customs of every country not in the lowest stage of barbarism or in the foulest depths of licentiousness have provided that the conjugal relation shall be formed in the presence of qualified witnesses, and in the observance of certain well-understood ceremonies and forms. This is appointed for reasons of obvious propriety, especially to enforce fidelity, and to secure permanence to the connection, and, by a line sufficiently distinct and broad, to separate virtuous marriage from all illicit and impure connections. Clandestine marriages are always disreputable in themselves. Then–
2. Let us not leave unnoticed the religious spirit in which the union was formed. The devout benedictions of the elders and the other witnesses were showered upon Boaz and his bride with all the lavish profusion of a most hearty goodwill, and prayers ascended for them to Him who in all ages has looked approvingly on virtuous wedlock. It is one of the marks of the divinity of our religion that it touches our humanity on all sides. Surely the formation of the marriage-bond pre-eminently ought to be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. (A. Thomson, D. D.)
A happy marriage
Ruths marriage was a happy one–
1. Because they could reckon on Gods blessing, and doubtless both earnestly prayed for it.
2. Again, we may be sure it was a happy marriage, for there was a oneness of feeling between Boaz and Ruth. They both loved God. They were both journeying on one and the same road. They were partners for eternity. It matters little, whether earthly comforts be many or few; if the hearts within it are bound together by that bond which is stronger even than the tie of affection–the bond of grace–then, be assured, there will be happiness. (Bp. Oxenden.)
What a true wife ought to be
Marriage, to a certain degree, a young man is to look upon from a utilitarian standpoint. A good wife is so much capital. She makes him to be, by a kind of grace, a great deal more than he is by nature. She contributes the qualities needed in order to convert his vigour into a safe as well as productive efficiency. She introduces, for instance, into his intellectual nature that ingredient of sentiment; which intellect requires in order to be able to do its best work. Heart and brain need to conspire in order to the attainment of the true, and without caring to assert that man is naturally heartless, any more than I should wish to assume that woman is by nature brainless, yet heart in its way is just as precious as brain in its way, and woman, so long as she is untainted by the passion of wanting to be a man, will be that member of the connubial corporation that will in particular contribute to the capital stock its affectional element. Some women may resent this, but I would like to caution young men against cherishing matrimonial designs upon any woman who is likely to resent it. If what you want is a wife, and not merely a housekeeper, you must keep your eye well open for a warm bundle of femininity that will be to you in a personal way what the fire on the hearth is to you in a physical way–a fund of tropical comfort that will keep the stiffness out of your thinking, the frost out of your feeling, and the general machinery of your life in a condition of pleasurable activity. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
From the gate of his place, i.e. from among the inhabitants dwelling within the gate of this city, which was Bethlehem-judah.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. Ruth the Moabitess . . . have Ipurchased to be my wifeThis connection Boaz not only mightform, since Ruth had embraced the true religion, but he was under alegal necessity of forming it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife,…. Which was the condition on which the purchase of the land was, that whoever bought that should take her for his wife; nor did Boaz do evil in marrying her, though a Moabitess. Moab was not one of the nations with whom marriage was forbidden; and though it was a Heathenish and idolatrous nation, and so on that account it was not fit and proper to marry with such, yet Ruth was become a proselytess; nor was this contrary to the law in De 23:3, since, according to the sense the Jews give of it, it respects men, and not women, and such men who otherwise were capable of bearing offices in the congregation;
“an Ammonite, and a Moabite (they say n) are forbidden, and their prohibition is a perpetual one, but their women are free immediately:”
to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance; the name of Mahlon, Ruth’s former husband, to whom the inheritance would have come had he lived; the raising up of his name is not upon a son of hers by Boaz, for her firstborn was called Obed, and not Mahlon, and is always spoken of as the son of Boaz, and not of Mahlon, but upon his inheritance, having bought his wife along with it, which the register of the purchase would show, and so cause his name to be remembered; and, as Jarchi says, when Ruth went in and out upon the estate or inheritance, they would say, this was the wife of Mahlon, and so through her his name would be made mention of:
that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of this place; might not be quite forgotten both in the city and in the court, and be remembered no more:
ye are witnesses this day; this is repeated, that they might answer to it, as they do in the next verse.
n Misn. Yebamot, c. 8. sect. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. That the name of the dead be not cut off The name of the child borne unto Boaz by Ruth was not called Mahlon, the name of the deceased husband, but Obed. Rth 4:17. To the question why this was so, Patrick answers that what Boaz did was in obedience to the law in Deu 25:6, for he was not the brother of Mahlon, but only a remote kinsman, and therefore not bound by the strict letter of the law in giving a name to the child. But the passage in Deu 25:6, need not be pressed to mean that, even if the redeemer be a brother, the child born of the levirate marriage must literally bear the name of the deceased brother; but rather, that all the facts of the case should be made known and preserved, as has been done in this history before us. Thus the name and memory of the dead Elimelech and of Mahlon were not cut off from among their brethren, nor from the gate of their native city, although the child of Ruth was not called after either of them.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Rth 4:10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye [are] witnesses this day.
Ver. 10. Moreover Ruth the Moabitess. ] But a proselyte: not such as were Solomon’s mistresses of Moab, who caused him to sin, Neh 13:26 but such as was Jether, by nature an Ishmaelite, 1Ch 2:17 but by his faith and religion an Israelite. 2Sa 17:25
Have I purchased to be my wife.
And from the gate of his place.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
from the gate = from the people of his city, “gate” being put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Part) for the people wont to assemble there. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
have I: Gen 29:18, Gen 29:19, Gen 29:27, Pro 18:22, Pro 19:14, Pro 31:10, Pro 31:11, Hos 3:2, Hos 12:12, Eph 5:25
the name: Deu 25:6, Jos 7:9, Psa 34:16, Psa 109:15, Isa 48:19, Zec 13:2
ye are witnesses: Isa 8:2, Isa 8:3, Mal 2:14, Heb 13:4
Reciprocal: Gen 19:37 – Moabites Gen 29:22 – and made Gen 38:9 – General Deu 23:3 – Ammonite Deu 25:9 – So shall 1Sa 22:3 – the king Joh 4:18 – is not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rth 4:10. Ruth the Moabitess have I purchased to be my wife He had her by the right of the same purchase, and did not succeed into the right of a brother, as mentioned Deuteronomy 25.; for he was not a brother to Elimelech, but only a remote kinsman of the same family, who could not enjoy the land while she lived, unless he would take her with it; to whom it belonged while she lived, and was to go to her issue when she died. From the gate of his place That is, from among the inhabitants dwelling within the gate of his city, which was Beth-lehem-judah.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his {f} place: ye [are] witnesses this day.
(f) Or, of the city where he remained.