And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
Ruth 4:2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down.
Ruth 4:3 And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s:
Ruth 4:4 And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
Ruth 4:5 Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
Ruth 4:6 And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.
The verse centers on "thought", "advertise", "thee", "saying", "before", "inhabitants", and "elders". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thought" and "advertise", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 3's "And he said unto the kinsman Naomi..." into verse 5's "Then said Boaz What day thou buyest...", so "thought" and "advertise" belong inside that flow. In Ruth context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thought" and "advertise" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.