Rut 4:7

7. The manner in former time This remark implies that the custom was no longer in use when this book was written.

Concerning redeeming and concerning changing That is, concerning the buying and exchanging of property.

A man plucked off his shoe “The custom itself, which existed among the Indians and the ancient Germans, arose from the fact that fixed property was taken possession of by treading upon the soil; and hence taking off the shoe and handing it to another was the symbol of the transfer of a possession or right of ownership.” Keil.

“The shoe symbolized a possession which one actually had, and could tread with his feet at pleasure.” Cassel.

A testimony in Israel Rather, an attested usage: a custom in Israel. This custom, it will be observed, is not precisely the same as that recorded Deuteronomy 25:9, in which the widow that claimed the right of marriage came into the presence of the elders and loosed the shoe, and spat in the face, of the man who refused to marry her. This nearest kinsman of Elimelech could not properly marry Ruth, and therefore the transaction between him and Boaz at the gate of the city was but an honourable transfer to his relative of his right to redeem the inheritance. It was but an instance of the ancient Israelitish custom concerning redeeming and changing. But the custom of Deuteronomy 25:9, is said to be still in use among the Jews in some localities, and Burckhardt tells us that the modern Arabs, in speaking of a repudiated wife, say, “She was my slipper; I have cast her off.”