Boaz marries Ruth and they have a baby boy
1In the morning Boaz went to the gate of the town and he sat down. The other protector, that Boaz had told Ruth about, also came to the gate. Boaz said to him: ‘Come here, my friend, and sit down.’ The man went to Boaz and he sat down with him. 2Boaz called 10 important men from the town and he said to them: ‘Come and sit here with us.’ They came and sat down with them. 3Then Boaz said to the other protector: ‘Naomi has come back from the land of Moab. She wants to sell the field of our brother, Elimelek, who has died. 4I thought that you must know about this. Now I ask you, in front of these important people: Do you want to buy this field? If you want to buy it, then you can buy it. But if you do not want to buy the field, then you must tell me, and I will buy it.’
The other protector said: ‘I will buy the field.’ 5Then Boaz said: ‘You must remember that if you buy the field from Naomi, then you must marry Ruth. The field must stay with the family of Elimelek.’
6When Boaz said this, the other protector said: ‘No, then I can not buy the field, because if I marry Ruth, my family could lose the field that I have when I die. You can buy the field yourself. I can not buy it.’
7At that time in Israel, when a protector could not help his family, or when he said another man could be the protector, he took off his shoe and gave it to the man who would then be the protector. Then all the people could see it. 8Then the protector said to Boaz: ‘You can buy the field.’ And he took off his shoe and he gave it to Boaz. 9Boaz said to all the important people: ‘You can all see today that I will buy the field from Naomi. I will buy the field that belonged to Elimelek and to Kilion and Mahlon, his 2 sons. 10I will also marry Ruth, the woman from the land of Moab. She was the wife of Mahlon and if she has a baby boy, he will inherit this field and the name of his family will not die, but it will go on. Today you are the witnesses.’
11Then the important men and all the other people at the gate said: ‘Yes, we are witnesses and we pray that God will bless the woman whom you will marry and who will come and stay in your home. We pray that she will be like Rachel and Leah who were the mothers of the Israelites. We pray that you will become important and rich. 12We pray that God will give you children with this young woman and that they will be strong like Perez, the child of Tamar and Judah.’
The family of King David
13Boaz married Ruth and God gave her a son. 14The women said to Naomi: ‘We thank God. Today He gave you a protector. We pray that God will make this son of Ruth important in Israel. 15We pray that he will make you happy and that he will help you and take care of you when you are old. Ruth is his mother and she loves you and she is better than 7 sons.’
16Naomi took the child in her arms. She took care of him as if he was her son. 17The women who lived there said: ‘Naomi has a son.’ They said his name would be Obed. He was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of King David.
18Here are the names of the family of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron. 19Hezron was the father of Ram, and Ram was the father of Amminadab. 20Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon was the father of Salmon. 21Salmon was the father of Boaz, and Boaz was the father of Obed. 22Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.
