Ruth 4:5
"I acquire" or "you acquire"?
In 4:5 the written Hebrew consonants read "I acquire" (ketiv) but the reading tradition says "you acquire" (qere). A second difficulty, "from Ruth" or "also Ruth," makes the verse one of the hardest in the book. The versions take it as "you."
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Readings
- "You acquire" (qere)
- Whoever buys the field must also take Ruth: the nearer redeemer learns the full cost.
- "I acquire" (ketiv)
- Boaz announces that he himself will marry Ruth, so any heir would reclaim the land: the nearer redeemer's purchase would be worthless.
- "From Ruth" / "also Ruth"
- Reading ומאת as "and from" makes Ruth a seller; reading it as וגם את, "also," makes her the one acquired.
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Ruth
No original survives.
Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC
Septuagint (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
et du consentement de Ruth la Moabite… il faudra que tu la prennes aussi
and with the consent of Ruth the Moabite… you must take her too
Second person. One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Quast's Göttingen edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Ruth quoque Moabitidem… debes accipere
you must also take Ruth the Moabitess
Second person; Ruth as the object.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וּמֵאֵת רוּת הַמּוֹאֲבִיָּה אֵשֶׁת־הַמֵּת קניתי קָנִיתָה
and from Ruth the Moabite, the dead man's wife, [written] I acquire / [read] you acquire
The library's Hebrew prints both: the unpointed ketiv קניתי and the pointed qere קָנִיתָה.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess
Second person; Ruth as a seller.
1917
JPS Tanakh (1917)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: JPS Tanakh (1917).
hast thou also bought of Ruth the Moabitess
Second person, as a question.
What changed, and why
The Masoretes preserved the written form and noted how it was to be read. The site shows both, rather than collapsing them into one phrase. NET judges the qere more likely; that is a judgment, not proof.
What the evidence shows
- The Hebrew of 4:5 has a ketiv/qere difference.
Source: NET Bible, textual note on Ruth 4:5 ↗; Sefaria, Ruth 4:5–6 (Hebrew with ketiv and qere) ↗
- The qere "you acquire" is the original reading.
Sources
- NET Bible, textual note on Ruth 4:5 ↗
- Sefaria, Ruth 4:5–6 (Hebrew with ketiv and qere) ↗
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)
Related lessons
- The City Gate, the Land, the Sandal and the Marriage →Boaz sits at the gate, calls the nearer redeemer and ten elders, and offers him Naomi's field. The man agrees, until Boaz adds that whoever acquires the field also acquires Ruth, to raise up the dead man's name. He declines, takes off his sandal and gives it to Boaz. Boaz calls the elders to witness, and the people bless the marriage: like Rachel and Leah, like the house of Perez.
- How Ruth Came to Us →Who wrote Ruth, and when? Why is it among the Writings in Jewish Bibles but after Judges in Christian ones? What do the four Dead Sea Scroll copies preserve? How did the Greek translation come down, and why is Ruth read at Shavuot?