Ruth had worked in Boaz’s field and had a large harvest. She then went home and told Naomi whose field she had worked. When it turned out to be Boaz, Naomi said he was a relative of theirs, one of the redemptioners.
Ruth 2
18 So she gathered it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and she brought it in and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten.
19 Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today, and where have you worked? Blessed is he who knew you!” So she told her mother-in-law for whom she was working, and she said, “The name of the man for whom I worked today is Boaz.”
20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who has not withheld His mercy from the living and the dead.” And Naomi said to her, “The man is a relative of ours; he is one of our close relatives.”
21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my servants until they have finished all the harvest.’”
22 And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his daughters, and that they do not trouble you in another field.”
23 So she joined Boaz’s daughters in gleaning until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
God is faithful
Naomi’s response is that God has not withheld His mercy from the living and the dead. The living are Naomi and Ruth; the dead are Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion. Typologically, it speaks of God being faithful to His people, even though they are now in the grave as a nation (Rom. 11:29). Regarding the restoration of Israel, Paul says: what will their reception be but life from the dead (Rom. 11:15)?
Goel
Naomi tells Ruth that Boaz is one of the redeemers. A redeemer (Hebrew: goel) is a family member, a close relative, who had the right to repurchase the lost family property.
Leviticus 25
25 If your brother becomes impoverished and has sold some of his property, then his close relative shall act as a redeemer and repurchase what his brother sold.
Redeemership
Besides this function, a redeemer could act to redeem from slavery (Lev. 25:47-49) and to restore justice (Num. 35:19). But also to raise up offspring with a widow (the levirate marriage), as will become clear later in Ruth (Ruth. 4:3-10). Here in Ruth 2, it concerns the repurchase of the land that had been sold due to poverty, so that it remains within the family.
Under Israelite law, the sold land was never anyone’s permanent property, because it belonged to God himself. Therefore, it could be repurchased by the redeemer. However, if there was no redeemer within the family, the land would revert to its original owner in the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:28).