They sat down, and he spoke to the kinsman: Noemi, who is returned from the country of Moab will sell a parcel of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech.
וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ לַגֹּאֵ֔ל חֶלְקַת֙ הַשָּׂדֶ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְאָחִ֖ינוּ לֶאֱלִימֶ֑לֶךְ מָכְרָ֣ה נָעֳמִ֔י הַשָּׁ֖בָה מִשְּׂדֵ֥ה מוֹאָֽב׃
2 Church Fathers comment on this verse
At that moment, when he declined the offer of marriage, he had already been joined to this esteemed companion. The dialogue between Boaz and his closest kinsman is also quite remarkable. Instead of directly addressing the topic of marriage, he referenced the acquisition of land.
When Ruth and her mother-in-law arrived in the land of Israel, it was divinely arranged, due to her prayers, that she would wed a man from Abraham's lineage, who initially she thought to be the closest relative. However, he declined the marriage proposal, and as a result, she was wed to Boaz in the presence of ten elders. Although Boaz initially expressed his inability to marry her, he ultimately became her husband and received blessings from those ten elders. This narrative seems to foreshadow John the Baptist, whom the Israelites mistakenly thought to be the Messiah, leading them to question his identity. He did not refute Christ but rather confessed Him by stating that he was not the Messiah.
Those sent to him continued to question who he was, to which he replied, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (John 1:19-27). He proclaimed the good news of the Lord, indicating, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom," and he identified himself as the friend of the bridegroom, saying, "But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and listens to him, rejoices to hear the voice of the bridegroom" (John 3:29). Despite this, they assumed he was the Christ, failing to comprehend that Christ came during the time of visitation (See Luke 1:40-45) and that the one heralded by the prophets was the true Bridegroom of the Church. Just as he informed Ruth that he was not her kinsman before she became united with Boaz, so Christ, the authentic Bridegroom of the Church heralded by the prophets, was deemed worthy to embrace the Church gathered from all nations, presenting to God the Father a countless assembly from across the earth, as the kinsman had removed his sandal.
Passages read together with this verse.
THEOSIS