Ruth 4:7 is a note from the narrator explaining an old legal custom in Israel. When a family property or duty was transferred from one person to another, the man giving up his claim removed his sandal and handed it to the other man, and that gesture made the deal official. The narrator is not speaking to God or to a congregation here. He is speaking to his readers, explaining a practice they may not have known so they can follow the story of Ruth and Boaz at the city gate.
Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man took off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the way of formalizing transactions in Israel.
Ruth 4:7 (WEB)
What Ruth 4:7 Means
The verse begins by saying this was “the custom in former time in Israel.” The narrator is telling you that the practice belonged to an earlier period, and he wants you to understand the scene as a formal, recognized procedure rather than a private favor between two men. The phrase “concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging” points to two linked ideas: buying back land or family rights that had been lost, and trading one claim for another. Both needed to be made certain, which is why the verse says the custom was “to confirm all things.”
The gesture itself is simple. One man “took off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor.” The sandal stood in for the transfer of a right, much as a signed document or a handshake might in other times and places. The verse does not explain every detail of how the practice worked, and it does not promise that such customs will settle every dispute in your own life. It simply shows how people in that world gave visible weight to an agreement, so that everyone present would remember that the matter had been settled.
The Context of Ruth 4:7
The book of Ruth is traditionally attributed to an unnamed author and is set in the period of the judges. Its audience was the Israelite community that treasured the story of a Moabite widow who attached herself to the God of Israel and found a place among his people. Verses 4 through 6 show Boaz offering the right of redemption to a nearer relative, who declines because it would cost him his own inheritance. Ruth 4:7 steps back to explain how that refusal was made binding, and verses 8 through 10 show the shoe being given and Boaz announcing his purchase before witnesses.
Read this way, the verse is not a random aside. It is the hinge that turns a private conversation into a public, legally recognized transaction. Without it, the reader would wonder how the shoe came into the story. With it, you can see that the whole scene is careful and deliberate, and that the community’s witness is part of what makes Ruth’s future secure.
Key Phrases in Ruth 4:7
Ruth 2:20
Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.”
(WEB)
Naomi names Boaz as one of their “near kinsmen,” the same kind of relative who holds the right of redemption. Reading this earlier verse alongside Ruth 4:7 shows you why the question of redemption matters so much in the story and why Naomi is so hopeful about Boaz.
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 lays the foundation for the practice in Ruth. It describes the duty of a kinsman to redeem land that a relative has been forced to sell, which is the principle that the custom at the gate puts into action.
A Short Prayer From Ruth 4:7
Father, you care about the details of how people keep their word to one another, and you care about the people who are easily overlooked when promises go unsettled. Help me to be faithful in what I have committed to, and give me the courage to speak clearly where things are unclear. Where I have been careless with agreements, show me how to make them right. Thank you that you are a God who redeems and who brings order out of what was lost. Amen.
