Ruth 4:3

"And he said unto the near kinsman, Naomi that is come out of the country of Moab, selleth the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's.

"Naomi selleth ... the land." This is the first intimation that Naomi had any land, and it indicates that there had been far more extensive contact between Boaz, Naomi, and Ruth than had been mentioned thus far in the narrative. We do not know how Naomi came to possess this land, but the probability is that she was acting as an agent for her deceased sons in whom the land title was probably vested. Matthew Henry supposed that Elimelech had been compelled to mortgage the parcel during the famine that drove the family to Moab.[2] In that event, the land would have reverted to Elimelech's heirs in the year of Jubilee. Thus, what Naomi was selling really amounted to the use of the land for that unspecified number of years.

"Our brother Elimelech's." The term `brother' is used here in the sense of `brother Israelite,' as frequently in the Bible.