Chapters from ike Biblical Law. nearest kinsman. Naomi was mentioned apparently because she was known as the wife of Elimelech, whereas, Ruth, who had been married to Mahlon in Moab, was not commonly known as his wife; and it may be, that the fact that Ruth was a foreigner had something to do with the precedence accorded to Naomi on this occasion. There is no doubt, however, that although Ruth was a Moabitess, she, by her action and by her words in following Naomi to Bethlehem, in adopting Naomi's country, her God and her domicile, became, according to the ideas of those times, thoroughly naturalized; whereas, Orpah, the widow of Chilion, who returned to her mother's house in Moab, remained an alien. The question may be asked: if the land was Elimelech's, and the nearest kinsman had to marry Ruth the widow of Mahlon what is the meaning of the phrase "that the name of the dead may be raised upon his inheritance?" The answer to this is that the Jewish law considered the family, and not the individual, as the unit. As long as the family was kept up, the name of the indi vidual was of no consequence, so that the child of Ruth as fully represented Elimelech as it did Mahlon; and in the same manner it represented all the ancestors of Elimelech, and was simply considered a link in the chain of descent which, by a legal fiction, thus became unbroken. When Ruth had a son, they called him Obed. It will be seen, therefore, that the name was of no importance, but this Obed, although he was the son of Boaz and Ruth, was considered as the son of the dead Mah lon or of Elimelech; and it was thus by a legal fiction that this child continued the line of Elimelech, although it had none of his blood. This was the reason the neigh bors said, "there is a son born to Naomi." When the Goël refused to redeem the land after he discovered that he would have to marry Ruth, he excused himself, saying, 'lest I mar mine own inheritance." This may be taken to mean that other property
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which he owned would have to bear the bur den of improvement and maintenance of the particular piece of land that came to him through this marriage, because it had to be preserved for his son who would, in the eye of the law, not be considered his son, but the son of the dead Mahlon; nor would this estate of inheritance descend to any other children that he might have, but it was in a measure entailed upon the heirs of the body of Ruth. The record then goes on to say, "Now this was the custom in former time in Israel con cerning redeeming and concerning chang ing, to confirm all things; a man drew off his shoe and gave it to his neighbor, and this was a testimony in Israel; so the Goël said to Boaz, Buy it for thyself: and he drew off his shoe." The shoe was the symbol of pos session, and the foot planted upon the ground was the evidence of ownership: and figuratively, the word is used as indicating sovereignty probably from the fact that the king placed his foot upon the neck of captives and vassals; thus the shoe or sandal became the symbol of ownership and title; and the handing of the shoe from one to the other was evidence of a transfer of a right or title; thus in this case, the Goël who renounced his right to redeem in favor of Boaz, the next in succession, handed the latter his shoe as evidence of his transfer of the right of re demption. Boaz, having obtained the right of redemption through the renunciation of the nearest kinsman, made a public statement in the presence of the elders summarizing his rights, such a statement being necessary in the absence of written records of the trans action: "And Boaz said unto the elders and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's from the hand of Naomi." There could be no doubt as to this title, and the fact that it was the family estate rather than the estate of the individual that was now being trans ferred is indicated by the mentioning of the names of the father and the sons. There
