14 
Indiana University Studies 
the delivery of a twig or clod of earth did in English law in 
the conveyance of rights to land. The shoe was a symbol of 
possession because the foot planted on the ground was the 
evidence of ownership. But there were no public written rec- 
ords in those days, and so Boaz took another step. He said 
“unto the elders and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this 
day that I have bought all that was Elimeleck’s.” What Boaz 
wanted, however, was not Elimeleck’s estate, but Ruth. So he 
continued “Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, 
have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the 
dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut 
off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: 
ye are witnesses this day. And all the people that were in the 
gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses.” This was a 
lawful marriage, and required no further ceremony. 
From this simple case of Boaz and Ruth we get an insight, 
not only into the Hebrew legal procedure of the time, but also 
into the principles of the substantive law of ownership, in- 
heritance, conveyance, and marriage, as well as into the prin- 
ciple of solidarity of the family as the legal unit . 53 
The case of Naboth’s Vineyard is one which arose in the 
time of King Ahab, and shows how during the time of the 
kings the traditionary law of the Jews was put into abeyance 
by royal power. Naboth had a vineyard which Ahab wanted 
for himself, and he offered to buy it but Naboth would not sell. 
In fact he thought he had no right to sell, for he “said to 
Ahab, Jehovah forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance 
of my fathers unto thee.” This shows that in Hebrew law, 
even at this time, lands were regarded as owned by the family 
and inalienable. They could not be transferred by private 
grant, and Hebrew law knew no such thing as eminent domain. 
Ahab was a Jew and apparently did not himself think of vio- 
lating the law, but Jezebel, his wife, was a daughter of the 
king of Sidon, where the principles of law did not exert so 
great an influence over royal power, and she scornfully took 
the matter into her own hands ; but even she pretended to ob- 
serve the forms of Hebrew legal procedure at least. She, in 
the king’s name, ordered the elders and nobles in Naboth’s city 
to bring Naboth before them, charge him with blasphemy in 
that he “did curse God and the king”, have two base fellows 
53 1-4 Ruth. 
