Not necessarily a blood brother. The relationship implied by the Hebrew word thus translated is far more flexible than its English equivalent. Even friends are sometimes called brothers. The statement of Boaz to the effect that the land belonged to Elimelech implies that the two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, had not yet been given their inheritance. Therefore it is Naomi, and not Ruth, who sells the land. Nevertheless, a child of Ruth would legally fall heir to Elimelech’s land, and Naomi is therefore ready to transfer title to the property of her deceased husband to the kinsman who would marry Ruth. This kinsman would hold the land in trust until a child born to Ruth should become eligible to inherit it in his own right.

 The fact that the land was to be sold—leased, we would say today—to a near kinsman who would marry Ruth and hold it in trust for her offspring by this union, called for the application of two provisions of the Mosaic civil code. The laws on the transfer of land (Lev. 25:23-28) and the marriage of a widow to a near kinsman (Deut. 25:5-10) both applied to the case, with the latter placing a limitation upon the former.

 Such a sale was not a permanent transfer of property, but a temporary one. Naomi and Ruth, though unable to till the land themselves, could thus receive some income from it. The original owners might buy the land back at any time by paying the unexpired portion of the sale price; otherwise, it would automatically revert to them at the year of jubilee (see on Lev. 25:23-25).