Ruth 4:1

Went up. — Inasmuch as the town stood on a hill: so in Ruth 3:3, Ruth is bidden to go down to the threshing-floor.

The kinsman. — The Goel. (See Ruth 3:12).

Turn aside. — The form of the imperative is such as to give a hortatory turn, pray turn aside and sit down.

Such a one. — Heb.,p’loni almoni. This phrase is used like the English so-and-so, such-and-such, of names which it is thought either unnecessary or undesirable to give. The derivation is probably from palah, to mark out, to separate, to distinguish, and alam, to hide, giving the twofold notion of one who is indicated, though in a certain sense concealed. The phrase is used of places, 1 Samuel 21:2; 2 Kings 6:8; see also Daniel 8:13. Why the name is not recorded here does not appear; possibly it was not known to the writer, or it may have been thought unworthy of recording, since he neglected his plain duty in refusing to raise up seed to the dead. We know nothing of this unnamed person save the fact of the offering of the redemption set before him, and his refusal of it, an offer which involved the glory of being the ancestor of the Christ who was to be born in the far-off ages.