their kinds' (Gen. 8:19), `after their families' (Gen. 10:5); and is

the word `family' in Ruth 2:1.  Ruth uses the word shiphchah twice

in 2:13 in reference to herself as a `handmaid'.  Once again

profound doctrine is resident in these facts.  To be redeemed, one

must be of the same `family' or `kind' as the redeemer.  It was a

necessity, therefore, that the Lord from heaven should become man

and that the Word should be made flesh.

In Ruth 2:20 Naomi says of Boaz: `The man is near of kin to us'.

Here the word translated `near of kin' is qarob.  Readers who depend

upon Young's Analytical Concordance should note that this reference

is omitted both under `near' and `near of kin'.  The verb qarab, `to

come near', is used in the same intimate sense as the verb `to know'

(see Gen. 20:4), and once again the instructed reader will

appreciate the fuller meaning behind the New Testament references to

drawing near, both on the part of the Saviour Himself, and of those

whom He has redeemed.

This is perhaps the most important reference and is found in Ruth

2:20 `... one of our next kinsmen'.  Here the margin informs us that

the passage may be translated: `One that hath right to redeem'.  The

word here is Goel,* or `Kinsman-Redeemer'.

* In the Concordance,Goel will be found under Gaal,"to redeem".

The `Kinsman-Redeemer' played an important part in the Hebrew economy and

is referred to in Leviticus 25, where we find the first statement of the law

concerning the redemption of land.  Under the law of Moses it was not possible

for a man to sell the land that formed part of his true possession `in

perpetuity'.  In every transaction with regard to the sale of land, it was

compulsory to `grant a redemption' (Lev. 25:23,24).  If a man had `sold away'

any part of his possession, on account of poverty, his `next of kin' had the

right to redeem it.  A special provision was made for the safeguarding of the

inheritance to the rightful family, which is set out at length in Deuteronomy

`If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the

wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's

brother shall ... take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an

husband's brother unto her.  And it shall be, that the firstborn which she

beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his

name be not put out of Israel.  And if the man like not to take his

brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the

elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his

brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's

brother.  Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him:

and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; then shall his

brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his

shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So

shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.

And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his

shoe loosed'.