Commentaria in Ruth
7. THE MAN PUT OFF HIS SHOE.—This taking off of the shoe was a civil ceremony; namely it was a sign that he who took it off yielded his right, and as he gave up the shoe, so he handed over his right to another kinsman, to buy the field of his dead kinsman and to take his widow to wife. Now this unshoeing was twofold: one by way of punishment; for if a full brother would not take the wife of his brother dead without children, and so raise up seed to him, the law, Deut. xxv, verse 9, commanded that he be unshoed even against his will, and spat upon in the face; which was a great punishment, insult and ignominy. The other as a sign of cession of right: for if one was not a full brother of the dead man, but a relation in the second, third or fourth degree, he was not indeed bound by the law of Deut. xxv (for this touches only full brothers) to marry the dead man’s wife to raise up seed to him; yet he was bound to the same thing by a certain honour and custom; if however he would not or could not do it, he took off his shoe before the judges, and handed his shoe to another kinsman; that by this sign he might signify that he resigned his right to him, both to buy the dead man’s field and to take his widow to wife.
Allegorically St. Ambrose, book III On Faith, chapter v: “There was signified,” he says, “one to come from the Jews, from whom Christ came according to the flesh, who should raise up to his neighbour, that is, to the dead people, seed by the seed of heavenly doctrine, to whom the nuptial shoe of the Church to be joined was brought by the spiritual precepts of the law. Not Moses is the bridegroom: for to him it is said, Exodus iii: Put off the shoes from thy feet, that he may yield to his Lord. Not Jesus the son of Nave is the bridegroom. For to him also it is said, Josue v: Put off the shoes from thy feet, lest from likeness of name he should be believed the bridegroom. No other is the bridegroom, but Christ alone is the bridegroom, of whom John said: He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. For them the shoe is loosed, for him it cannot be loosed, as John said: I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his shoe. Christ alone then is the bridegroom, to whom she, coming from the Gentiles as bride, before poor and hungry, but now rich with the harvest of Christ, is wed, who gathers the sheaves of the fruitful crop, and the gleanings of the word, in the inner bosom of her mind, that she may feed with new food the widow bereft by the death of her son, the poor mother of a dead people, not leaving the widow destitute, nor seeking new ones. Christ alone then is the bridegroom, who did not begrudge even to the Synagogue the sheaves of his harvest.”
Moreover for his shoe the Chaldee renders narteke, that is, sheath, or rather glove. Perhaps both were done, namely that the one yielding his right and possession took off his shoe, and at the same time his glove, and handed it to another, signifying by this sign that he resigned his right to him. For so even now in some places right is resigned by a glove. For this is a fitting and, as it were, natural sign of resignation. Or this resignation was formerly made by a shoe, but afterwards by a glove. Whence the Jews now make their contracts and resignations by the handing over of a cloth, which they call the buying of the sudar, that is, of the napkin, as R. Elias testifies. Abulensis and Serarius treat of these at length; but Christians enter on the inheritance of a house by receiving the keys, and of a field by setting foot upon it.
11. WHO BUILT UP THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL—namely begot sons, descendants and grandsons of Jacob the patriarch, who by another name was called by God Israel, that is, Prevailing with God, because wrestling with the Angel of God he had prevailed over him, Genesis xxxii. For Rachel and Lia, wives of Jacob, bore twelve sons, from whom the whole house, that is, the stock and family of Israel, was propagated and wonderfully multiplied. Whence the Chaldee adds: in the twelve tribes, because these twelve sons of Jacob were the parents of the twelve tribes, and therefore Patriarchs.
13. SO BOOZ TOOK RUTH, AND MARRIED HER—He did this lawfully, because she was already a proselyte and converted to Judaism. For that law, Deut. xxiii, commanding that a Moabite should not enter into the Church of God, concerns men only, not women, as Abulensis teaches. St. Augustine answers otherwise on Deut., Question LV: “The question,” he says, “is how Ruth entered the Church of the Lord, since she was a Moabitess, from whom also the flesh of the Lord draws its origin. Unless perhaps he prophesied that she would enter, by what he said, even to the tenth generation. For ten generations are counted from Abraham, when Lot also lived, who begot the Moabites and Ammonites,” Gen. xix and xxxvii. And these are the generations: “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judas, Phares, Esron, Aram, Aminadab, Nahasson, Salmon, whose son was Booz.”
This answer is ingenious, but not genuine. For in Deut. is added: “for ever.” Morally, hear the Author of the Imperfect Work, hom. 1 on Matthew: “Ruth,” he says, “by the merit of her faith married Booz, because she despised her own nation, and land, and race, and chose Israel, and did not despise her mother-in-law, at once widow and stranger; led by desire of her race rather than her own, she cast off the gods of her fathers and chose the living God. Again, Booz by the merit of his faith took her to wife, that from such a sanctified marriage a royal race might be born. For Booz, being an old man, did not take a wife for himself, but for God; not because of passion of his body, but because of the justice of the law, to raise up seed to his neighbour; more ardent not so much in love as in religion: old in age, but young in faith; and therefore perhaps he was named in strength, or strength prevailing in him. For he who is of an age for entering marriage is in strength, nameable and worthy of praise, because he is in strength; but he who, past the conjugal age, has received from religion the strength to enter marriage, as this Booz did, is praiseworthy and nameable, because he stands in strength, and the strength of such a man is in him.” St. Jerome, epistle 95: “See,” he says, “how great is the merit of having given comfort to the forsaken. From her seed Christ arises.”
16. AND NOEMI TAKING THE CHILD, LAID IT IN HER BOSOM, AND SHE CARRIED IT, AND WAS A NURSE TO IT—teaching the child to walk, to speak, to worship God, to obey parents, to hear the law of God, to flee base things, to follow honest ones, to practise beneficence toward all, to harm none, to aspire to heaven, and so on; for from childhood depend youth, manhood, and the whole life of man. Wherefore the right bringing up of children is of the highest importance for their salvation as well as for the good of the Commonwealth. Therefore St. Jerome, in his epistle to Leta, about her little daughter Paula, who was the granddaughter of St. Paula, writes thus: “If you send me Paula, I promise myself to be both teacher and nurse; I will carry her on my shoulders, an old man, I will shape her stammering words; much more glorious than the philosopher of the world, who did not instruct a king of the Macedonians, to perish by Babylonian poison, but a handmaid and bride of Christ, to be offered to the heavenly kingdoms.”
17. THEY CALLED HIS NAME OBED.—Obed is the same as serving, sustaining, supporting, says Pagninus. They called him therefore “Obed,” as wishing and foretelling that this son would serve with his dutiful offices his parents, already advanced in labour and years, and would console and sustain their old age. Whence in verse 15 they say of him: “To comfort thy soul, and cherish thy old age.” So Josephus, Serarius and others: so among the Romans Scipio was called, because being young he served his aged and blind father, like a staff on which he leaned as he walked. For Obed in Hebrew is the same as in Latin scipio, a staff or support. Whence the mother of Tobias, chapter v, 23, calls her son “the staff of our old age.” Moreover Cornelius, surnamed Scipio, from whom the patrician race of the Scipios took its beginning, carried his father, who lacked sight, as a staff, which the Grammarians call scipio: hence the surname Scipio was given him, which then clung to his descendants, says Macrobius, book I, chapter iv. Again, Obed in Hebrew is the same as worshipping, namely God, as Fevardentius says from the Chaldee: for Obed was pious toward God as well as toward his parents, as was Jesse his son, from whom David drew his virtue and piety.