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Chapter 4:
"Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of
whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down
here. And he turned aside, and sat down" (4: 1).
The gate of a city was the meeting place where the councilors sat and where all public
transactions were carried out. We read in Job 29: 7-9:
"When to the city's gate I made my way, and in the open place prepared my seat; the
young men saw me, and withdrew themselves; yea, all the elders (or aldermen) would
rise up, and stand. The rulers, too, from talking would refrain, and lay their hand, for
silence, on their mouth . . . . ." (see the Companion Bible).
That was Job's exalted position among the alderman and princes of the city before his
affliction.
Boaz too without doubt would hold an important position among the councilors of
Bethlehem, for he was a mighty man of wealth, and grandson to Nahshon, a former
prince of Judah.
Boaz knew where he would find his brother. We do not read of this brother's name,
but he had the opportunity of being able to redeem Elimelech's inheritance, and although
he did not know it, to be knit into the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So Boaz contacted his brother at this meeting place, and obtained the services of ten
other councilors to act as witnesses in order to make the transaction legal. In Lev. 25:
and Deut. 25: 5-10 there is clearly set out God's law given to Moses before the nation
entered Canaan concerning the selling of land in Israel:
"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 go in unto her,
and 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" (Deut. 25: 5-10).
Each family in each of the tribes were given a portion of land, and the law
commanded that no man could sell that possession in perpetuity (see Lev. 25: 8-19,
23-28). In the year of Jubile, every fiftieth year, all land that had been sold reverted back
to the original owner. Land however could be redeemed by the kinsman-redeemer at any
time.