What Does Ruth 4:7 Mean in the King James?
Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a testimony in Israel.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sandal turns an exchange into something that can stand as public testimony.
THE MEANING
A transfer of claim takes visible form: one person removes the sandal and gives it to another, so the exchange can be witnessed and remembered. The verse shows an agreement becoming publicly legible through a concrete act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The exchange is complete as a private intention alone: here its confirmation takes the visible form of a sandal passed between people.
THE ROOT
תְּמוּרָה
temurah
GROWS FROM
מוּר
mur
To exchange or substitute one thing for another.
The word for “changing” carries the motion of putting one thing in another’s place. The sandal makes that exchange tangible: a claim passes between people through a visible sign.
ALSO GROWS
hēmîr: To exchange or change.
הֵמִיר
This verb in Leviticus 27:10 uses the same root for substituting one vowed animal for another, showing the root’s concrete exchange of one thing for another.
wayyāmîrû: They exchanged.
וַיָּמִירוּ
Psalm 106:20 uses this form for exchanging glory for an ox-image, making clear that the root describes replacement.
לְקַיֵּם
leqayyem
GROWS FROM
קוּם
qum
To rise or stand; in this form, to establish or make something stand.
The verse’s “confirm” carries the image of making the matter stand. The sandal is the concrete sign by which the exchange is established and remembered.
ALSO GROWS
qām: Stood or rose.
קָם
This basic form shows the root’s image of standing, underneath the verse’s language of confirmation.
heqîm: Established or set up.
הֵקִים
This causative form makes something stand, the same movement expressed when the exchange is confirmed.
גְּאֻלָּה
ge'ullah
GROWS FROM
גָּאַל
ga'al
To reclaim or redeem as a kinsman.
The root of “redeeming” holds a relationship inside the recovery: what is reclaimed is claimed again through kinship. Here redemption is bound to a specific right that can pass from one person to another.
ALSO GROWS
go'el: Kinsman-redeemer.
גֹּאֵל
This noun names the person who reclaims as kin, grounding the transaction in a relationship rather than an abstract payment.
ga'al: To redeem or reclaim.
גָּאַל
The verb names the act of reclaiming, which is the claim being handled in this exchange.
THE PATTERN
A claim or exchange becomes publicly established through visible acts and witnesses.
Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.THE THREAD
He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.Ruth’s “exchange” and Leviticus’s “change” share the root מוּר (mur), meaning to exchange or substitute one thing for another. Leviticus makes the replacement explicit, while Ruth gives an exchange a public sign in the sandal.
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