Ruth 4:6 records the moment a nearer relative decides not to buy back Elimelech’s land, because doing so could cost him his own inheritance. He hands the right of redemption to Boaz instead, which opens the way for Boaz to marry Ruth. The speaker is an unnamed “near kinsman” at the gate of Bethlehem, and he is speaking to Boaz in front of the town elders and witnesses.
The near kinsman said, “I can’t redeem it for myself, lest I endanger my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption for yourself; for I can’t redeem it.”
Ruth 4:6 (WEB)
What Ruth 4:6 Means
The kinsman begins by saying he cannot redeem the land “for himself.” The word translated redeem refers to a family member stepping in to buy back property that had been sold out of the family, or to restore what had been lost. He explains that doing so would “endanger” his own inheritance. In other words, if he used his own money and later had children with a different claim, or if the land’s obligations left him worse off, he would be putting his own household at risk.
He then passes the duty along: “Take my right of redemption for yourself.” He is not offering a gift of money or a favor to Naomi. He is stepping aside from a legal responsibility he judges too costly, and transferring it to the next person in line. The verse does not promise that a hard obligation will always be easy, nor does it describe God acting directly in this exchange. It shows one man’s honest assessment of his own limits, and the practical result of that choice.
The Context of Ruth 4:6
The book of Ruth is a short narrative in the Hebrew Bible, traditionally attributed to Samuel, and it tells the story of a Moabite widow who stays with her mother-in-law Naomi and gathers grain in the fields of Boaz. Its first readers were people living under Israel’s laws of land and family, where keeping property within a clan and raising up heirs for a deceased man were serious matters. Ruth 4:3 to 9 shows the legal process at the town gate, where the nearest relative is offered the chance to act first.
Just before the verse, Boaz tells the kinsman that buying the land also means taking on Ruth, the widow, so that the name of the dead man will continue. That detail is what makes the kinsman hesitate. Read in this setting, Ruth 4:6 is not a random refusal. It is the turning point in the legal scene, the step that clears the way for Boaz to become the redeemer of both the land and the family line.
Key Phrases in Ruth 4:6
Ruth 4:14
The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you today without a near kinsman. Let his name be famous in Israel.
(WEB)
This verse comes later in the same book, after Boaz has married Ruth. The women of Bethlehem bless Naomi and recognize the redeemer God has provided, showing how the legal transfer in verse 6 led to a family restored.
Leviticus 25:25
“‘If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold.
(WEB)
This law describes the duty of a near relative to redeem land sold out of a family. It gives the legal background behind the kinsman’s right and explains why the question of redemption came up at the town gate.
