BOAZ

bo'-az (bo`az; Booz; "quickness" (?) Ruth 2-4 1 Chronicles 2:11, 12; Matthew 1:5 Luke 3:32):

(1) A resident of Bethlehem and kinsman of Elimelech, Naomi's husband. In Ruth 2:1 he is described as a gibbor chayil, a phrase which can mean either "a mighty man of valor" or else "a man of position and wealth." The latter is probably the sense in which the phrase is applied to Boaz (compare 1 Samuel 9:1). He had fields outside the town, and to them Ruth went to glean. Boaz noticed her and extended special kindness and protection to her, bidding her remain with his female workers, and charging the men not to illtreat her, and also giving her of the reapers' food at mealtime. Boaz awoke one night and found Ruth lying at his feet. He praised her virtue, and promised to take charge of her if her dead husband's next-of-kin failed to do so. He laid her case before the next-of-kin, and finally redeemed the family property himself and bought as well the right to take Ruth in marriage. The son of Boaz and Ruth was Obed, father of Jesse, and grandfather of David. 1 Chronicles 2:11, 12 makes Boaz a descendant of Hezron, and so probably a chief of the Hezronite clan in Bethlehem. Jewish tradition identifies Boaz with Ibzan (Judges 12:8-10).

Boaz "is set before us as a model of piety, generosity and chastity" (H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, 398). He found virtue and rewarded it. HPM, sections 501-8, gives a picture of the life of "a well-to-do landed proprietor of central Palestine," much of which could aptly be taken as a description of Boaz.

(2) The name of one of the two bronze pillars erected in front of Solomon's temple, the other being Jachin (1 Kings 7:21 2 Chronicles 3:17).

See JACHIN AND BOAZ; TEMPLE.

David Francis Roberts

JACHIN AND BOAZ

ja'-kin (yakhin, "he shall establish"; bo`az, "in it is strength," 1 Kings 7:15-22 2 Kings 25:16, 17; 2 Chronicles 3:15-17 Jeremiah 52:17): These were the names of the two bronze pillars that stood before the temple of Solomon. They were not used in supporting the building; their appearance, therefore, must have been solely due to moral and symbolic reasons. What these are it is not easy to say. The pillars were not altar pillars with hearths at their top, as supposed by W.R. Smith (Religion of the Semites, 191, 468); rather they were "pillars of witness," as was the pillar that witnessed the contract between Jacob and Laban (Genesis 31:52). At difficulty arises about the height of the pillars. The writers in Kings and Jeremiah affirm that the pillars before the porch were 18 cubits high apiece (1 Kings 7:15 Jeremiah 52:21), while the Chronicler states that they were 35 cubits (2 Chronicles 3:15). Various methods have been suggested of reconciling this discrepancy, but it is more probable that there is a corruption in the Chronicler's number. On the contruction of the pillars and their capitals, see TEMPLE. At the final capture of Jerusalem they were broken up and the metal of which they were composed was sent to Babylon (2 Kings 25:13, 16). In Ezekiel's ideal temple the two pillars are represented by pillars of wood (Ezekiel 40:49).

W. Shaw Caldecott