Boaz

Boaz is the Bethlehem landholder of the book of Ruth, the kinsman of Elimelech who takes the Moabite widow Ruth as wife and so becomes the great-grandfather of David. Scripture names him in two principal settings: the harvest fields and threshing-floor of Ruth 2-4, and the Messianic genealogies of Mt 1:5 and Lu 3:32. A second figure also bears the name — the left-hand bronze pillar of Solomon's temple in 1 Ki 7:21 and 2 Ch 3:17 — and both senses are treated under the one umbrella.

The Bethlehem Landholder

Boaz is introduced at the head of Ruth 2 as the man behind the field where Ruth gleans: "And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz" (Ruth 2:1). The kinsman-of-Elimelech clause and the of-the-family-of-Elimelech phrase mark him as eligible to act for the widow-household, and the mighty-man-of-wealth label places him among Bethlehem's substantial men.

He arrives in the field carrying that authority into covenant-shaped greeting: "And, look, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, Yahweh be with you⁺. And they answered him, Yahweh bless you" (Ruth 2:4). The come-from-Bethlehem clause locates him as the Bethlehem-man of verse 1, and the paired Yahweh-greetings frame his field-authority under shared covenant-speech with his workers.

Ruth herself appears in the same field by her own request and by the overseer's report. She is named through the reaper-overseer as "the Moabite damsel who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab" (Ruth 2:6) — the Moabite-damsel label fixing her origin and the came-back-with-Naomi phrase tying her to the returning widow-household. Her own words to the overseer are courteous and persistent: "Let me glean, I pray you⁺, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came, and has remained standing from morning until now; her sitting now in the house [has only been] for a moment" (Ruth 2:7). The let-me-glean request frames her as a petitioner for behind-the-reapers access, and the from-morning-until-now clause measures her sustained labor.

Through Boaz's protection, Ruth's gleaning runs the whole grain-season: "So she stuck by the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law" (Ruth 2:23). The stick-verb plants her in the Boaz-maiden cohort, the two-harvest span extends her labor across barley and wheat, and the dwelt-with-her-mother-in-law clause keeps Naomi's household intact through the season.

The Threshing-Floor

Ruth's covenant with Naomi already governs everything that happens at Boaz's field. At the moment of decision in Moab she had refused to turn back: "And Ruth said, Don't entreat me to leave you, and to return from following after you, for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16). The four parallel clauses commit her to Naomi's road, lodging, people, and God, and that prior pledge is the foundation on which Naomi later builds her threshing-floor plan.

Ruth's response to that plan is the same kind of unreserved pledge: "And she said to her, All that you say I will do" (Ruth 3:5). The speaker-clause has Ruth responding to her mother-in-law; the pledge-clause commits her without reservation to the wash-anoint-dress-go-down-threshing-floor program before she executes it.

At the threshing-floor itself, Ruth's words to Boaz make the kinsman-claim explicit: "And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth your slave: spread therefore your skirt over your slave; for you are a near kinsman" (Ruth 3:9). Her self-identification ("I am Ruth your slave") and the spread-your-skirt request frame the petition; the for-you-are-a-near-kinsman clause supplies the legal ground.

Boaz's reply receives the petition in the same key in which she gave it: "And now, my daughter, don't be afraid; I will do to you all that you say; for all the city of my people does know that you are a worthy woman" (Ruth 3:11). The don't-be-afraid clause addresses her fear, the I-will-do-all-you-say clause matches her own earlier all-that-you-say pledge to Naomi, and the all-the-city-knows clause attests her worth through her adopted people's testimony.

The Kinsman-Redeemer

Boaz settles the kinsman-question in public at the city gate. To the assembled witnesses he declares: "You⁺ are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi. Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead will not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place: you⁺ are witnesses this day" (Ruth 4:9-10). The bought-all-that-was clause covers the property of the three dead men of the household, the Ruth-the-Moabitess clause makes the marriage equally a public legal transaction, and the to-raise-up-the-name-of-the-dead clause states the redemptive purpose.

The marriage is then carried through and crowned with a son: "So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he entered her, and Yahweh gave her conception, and she bore a son" (Ruth 4:13). The take-verb has Boaz as subject with Ruth as object, the became-his-wife clause consummates the marriage, the entered-her verb marks the sexual union, and the Yahweh-gave-conception clause sets divine agency over the offspring, so Boaz the kinsman-redeemer's wife-taking of the Moabite widow is crowned by Yahweh's gift of the son who carries the dead man's name forward.

The neighbors of Bethlehem then place that son in the line that the genealogies will later receive: "And her women neighbors gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they named him Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David" (Ruth 4:17).

In the Messianic Line

The two New Testament genealogies pick up Boaz at exactly that link. Matthew's descending list reads: "and Salmon begot Boaz from Rahab; and Boaz begot Obed from Ruth; and Obed begot Jesse" (Mt 1:5). Boaz is placed as son of Salmon by Rahab and father of Obed by Ruth; two foreign-associated mothers flank his own generation, and his begetting of Obed from Ruth carries the line on toward Jesse.

Luke's ascending list keeps the same connection without naming the mothers: "the [son] of Jesse, the [son] of Obed, the [son] of Boaz, the [son] of Sala, the [son] of Nahshon" (Lu 3:32). Boaz stands between Sala (his father) and Obed (his son), and the chain runs upward through Jesse toward David.

The Pillar Named Boaz

A second sense of the name belongs to Solomon's temple, where one of the two bronze pillars is called Boaz: "And he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called its name Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called its name Boaz" (1 Ki 7:21). The Chronicler reports the same naming: "And he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz" (2 Ch 3:17). The right-hand pillar is Jachin and the left-hand pillar is Boaz; the two stand at the porch of the temple as a paired naming.