Naomi is forced by poverty to sell a piece of land belonging to her family. In Israelite law, family members had the first right to buy, so that the property remained in the family.
Ruth 4
3 He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the country of Moab, is selling a piece of the field that belonged to our brother Elimelech.
4 Then I said, ‘I will reveal it to you, saying, Buy it in the presence of those sitting here, and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, tell me, and I will know, for there is no one to redeem it besides you, and I am after you.'” And he said, “I, I will redeem.”
5 Boaz said, “On the day you acquire the field from Naomi’s hand, acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up a name for the dead in his inheritance.”
6 The close relative said, “I am not able to redeem, lest I destroy my inheritance. You redeem what I should redeem, for I am not able to redeem.”
Brother-in-law marriage
“Ploni Almoni” immediately agrees when he hears that he can acquire the land. But as soon as he learns that this also means he must enter into a levirate marriage with Ruth, he immediately withdraws. Apparently, Naomi had stipulated this as a condition of the sale of the land.
The so-called levirate or brother-in-law marriage (Deut. 25:5-10) stipulated that if a man died childless, his brother was obligated to marry the widow. The first child born of this marriage was then considered the descendant of the deceased brother. In this way, his name and inheritance were preserved within the family (Deut. 25:6).
Inheritance in the name of Mahlon
If “Ploni Almoni” fathered an heir by Ruth, this heir would be considered descendants of Mahlon (4:10). At first, redeeming Naomi’s land seemed like a profitable venture for the “ploni almoni,” because his lineage had died out and the land would belong to him. However, if he married Ruth and had offspring with her, he would lose his inheritance again, as it would then be transferred to the deceased Mahlon (Deut. 25:6).
Ploni Almoni” foreshadows the coming false messiah. He was insensitive to the memory of the deceased Mahlon and indifferent to the fate of the widows Naomi and Ruth. Above all, he refuses to submit to God’s law of levirate marriage. Thus, “ploni almoni” emerges as a type of the man of lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3).