boaz Summary and Overview

alacrity. (1.) The husband of Ruth, a wealthy Bethlehemite. By the "levirate law" the duty devolved on him of marrying Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:1-13). He was a kinsman of Mahlon, her first husband. (2.) The name given (for what reason is unknown) to one of the two (the other was called Jachin) brazen pillars which Solomon erected in the court of the temple (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chr. 3:17). These pillars were broken up and carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.

(fleetness). 1. A wealthy Bethlehemite kinsman to Elimelech the husband of Naomi. He married Ruth, and redeemed the estates of her deceased husband Mahlon. #Ru 4:1| Boaz is mentioned in the genealogy of Christ, #Mt 1:5| (B.C. 1250, but there is great difficulty in assigning his date.) 2. The name of one of Solomon's brazen pillars erected in the temple porch. [JACHIN] It stood on the left, and was eighteen cubits high. #1Ki 7:15, 21; 2Ch 3:15; Jer 52:21|

BO'AZ , or BO'OZ (lovely), was a descendant of Judah, Ruth 2:1, and through him is traced the regular succession of Jewish kings. Matt 1:5. Boaz was a man of wealth and of great respectability. He married Ruth and begat Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. See Ruth.

Explained in margin 1 Kings 7:15-21, "in it (is) strength." Others, fleetness. 1. Of Bethlehem: Elimelech's (Naomi's husband's) kinsman. When the next of kin to Ruth, Naomi's daughter-in-law, declined to do the part of redeemer (god) (See BLOOD) of the inheritance of her deceased husband Mahlon (compare Deuteronomy 25:5-10), Boaz did so by marrying her, though much her senior (Rth 3:10). Their son Obed was grandfather of David. There being no objection to an Israelite's marriage with a Moabitess marks an early date (contrast Ezra 9). David's descent from Ruth the Moabitess accounts for the intimacy of David with the king of Moab, so that it was with him he left his father and mother in his flight from Saul (1 Samuel 22:3-5); an undesigned coincidence between the books of Samuel and Ruth, a mark of genuineness (compare Psalm 27:10). In the genealogy (Rth 4:18-22) several, at least three, generations must be inserted, as the list there only allows ten generations for 850 years, and only four for the 450 years between Salmon and David. 2. The name of one of the two brass pillars in Solomon's temple porch, on the left, as Jachin was on the right. The difference of the height as given in 1 Kings 7:15; 1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chronicles 3:15, arises from the height in one place including, in the other place excluding, the ornament which united the shaft to the chapiter (compare Jeremiah 52:17-21). The pillars, which were hollow, were broken up and carried to Babylon at the fall of Jerusalem before Nebuchadnezzar.