Catholic Commentary
The Sandal Ceremony: A Custom Explained and Enacted
7Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man took off his sandal, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the way of formalizing transactions in Israel.8So the near kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” then he took off his sandal.
Ruth 4:7–8 describes an ancient Israelite custom in which a kinsman removed his sandal and gave it to Boaz, a public gesture that legally transferred the right to redeem Naomi's property to Boaz. This witnessed act, performed before the elders at the gate, formalized the transaction and allowed Boaz to proceed with the redemption that would restore Naomi's family line.
A man surrenders his sandal—and unknowingly opens the door for Christ to enter salvation history.
There is a quiet irony layered into this moment. The kinsman steps back ostensibly to protect his own inheritance (v. 6), yet his very act of self-preservation is the instrument through which Israel's greatest royal lineage will proceed. God works through the self-interested reticence of an unnamed man just as powerfully as through the generous fidelity of Boaz.
Typological and Spiritual Senses
The Fathers of the Church and medieval interpreters consistently read Boaz as a type (typos) of Christ, the true Redeemer (go'el). The unnamed kinsman, who is willing but ultimately unable to complete the redemption without imperiling his own house, prefigures the inadequacy of the Mosaic Law to bring full redemption — the Law could define the obligation but could not, of itself, fulfill it completely. Boaz, who redeems at personal cost and without reservation, steps forward where the Law alone fell short. The sandal, surrendered by the lesser redeemer, becomes the instrument of authorization for the greater one. In this light, the ceremony in Ruth 4:7–8 is a enacted prophecy: the One who will truly redeem must receive the right to do so from all who have prior — but insufficient — claim.
Catholic tradition reads this passage within the rich framework of sensus plenior — the fuller sense of Scripture that the Holy Spirit intends beyond the literal, and which the Church is uniquely equipped to unfold. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the Church, as early as apostolic times, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology" (CCC §128–130), and the typological weight of Ruth 4:7–8 is substantial.
St. Ambrose of Milan, in his De Viduis (On Widows), sees in Boaz a figure of Christ who takes the widow (the Gentile Church, represented by Ruth) under his protection and redemption, while the prior claimant represents those who, under the Old Covenant, had first claim but could not consummate the redemption. This patristic reading is echoed by St. Bede the Venerable in his Commentary on Ruth, where he explicitly identifies the removal of the sandal as a figure of the passing of the Old Law's primacy to the New Covenant in Christ.
The sandal imagery connects profoundly with John the Baptist's declaration that he is "not worthy to unfasten the strap of [Christ's] sandal" (John 1:27). The Baptist, who embodies the fullness of the prophetic and legal tradition, acknowledges that even the greatest representative of the Old Covenant cannot lay legitimate claim to what belongs to the true Redeemer. The sandal is surrendered — willingly, fittingly, graciously.
From the perspective of the Church's sacramental theology, this public, witnessed, embodied act of ratification also illuminates the Catholic insistence that grace operates through visible, communal, and material signs — anticipating what the Council of Trent taught about sacraments as efficacious signs. The sandal ceremony shows that God's covenantal purposes are not merely interior or invisible but are sealed through real, bodily acts performed before the community of faith.
In an age that prizes private, individualized spirituality, Ruth 4:7–8 challenges contemporary Catholics with the irreducibly public and embodied nature of commitment before God. The sandal ceremony was witnessed by elders at the city gate — it was not a private handshake but a communal, legally binding act. This speaks directly to the Catholic understanding of the sacraments, marriage above all: vows made before the Church are not merely personal affirmations but are witnessed, ratified, and upheld by the Body of Christ.
More personally, the unnamed kinsman's gracious self-removal invites a practical examination of conscience: Are there moments in our own lives when, like this man, we cling to rights or claims that, if surrendered, would allow God's larger purposes to unfold? Sometimes fidelity means standing firm; sometimes it means removing one's sandal — stepping aside, relinquishing a position, a preference, or a priority — so that the true Redeemer can work. This is not passivity but a profound form of active cooperation with divine Providence, which is the heart of the Marian fiat that defines Christian discipleship.
Commentary
Ruth 4:7 — The Narrator's Editorial Gloss
The narrator steps outside the drama to address the reader directly, signaling that this custom was already ancient and no longer commonly practiced by the time of the text's composition or final editing. This aside is itself hermeneutically important: it confirms that the book of Ruth was compiled or redacted at a later period, yet the community took pains to preserve the legal and cultural particulars of the earlier era. The phrase "in former time in Israel" (Hebrew: לְפָנִים בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, lephanim beyisra'el) does not connote embarrassment about the custom but rather a reverential preservation of ancestral practice.
The sandal (na'al) functioned as a quasi-contractual instrument. In the ancient Near East, land and legal standing were often symbolized by the ability to walk upon, possess, and claim territory with one's feet. To remove and surrender one's sandal was, therefore, to surrender one's right to "stand" on that ground — to walk upon and possess it. The act was performed publicly, in the presence of the elders at the gate (v. 2), making it a witnessed, legally binding renunciation. The narrator's phrase "to confirm all things" (לְקַיֵּם כָּל-דָּבָר, leqayyem kol-davar) echoes the covenantal language of ratification throughout the Hebrew scriptures; transactions were not mere private agreements but solemn public acts with communal accountability.
It is important to distinguish this ceremony from the related but distinct ritual of halizah described in Deuteronomy 25:5–10. In Deuteronomy, it is the widow who removes the sandal of the unwilling brother-in-law in a ceremony of public shaming, and she spits in his face. Here, by contrast, there is no shaming: the kinsman removes his own sandal and gives it to Boaz, a gesture of willing, gracious concession rather than disgrace. The narrator is careful to frame this as a general custom ("the way of formalizing transactions") rather than the specific levirate shame-rite, suggesting that the sandal-transfer had a broader commercial and legal application in ancient Israel beyond the Deuteronomic legislation alone.
Ruth 4:8 — The Moment of Transfer
The unnamed kinsman — pointedly never given a name in the narrative, perhaps a literary device suggesting his relative insignificance in the arc of sacred history — speaks the pivotal words: "Buy it for yourself" (qeneh-lak). This is an act of legal cession. By naming Boaz as the purchaser, he irrevocably removes himself from the transaction. The removal of the sandal then seals what the words have declared. The sequence — speech, then symbolic act — mirrors the structure of ancient covenant-making, where verbal proclamation is confirmed and embodied in a physical rite.