Goel

Goel (Hebrew gō'ēl, the participle of gā'al, "to redeem") is the kinsman-redeemer — the nearest male relative who bore both the right and the obligation to redeem a distressed family member or their property. Duties of the goel included purchasing a kinsman's land to keep it within the family (Lev. 25:25), redeeming a kinsman sold into slavery (Lev. 25:48–49), marrying a deceased kinsman's widow (levirate-like duty, illustrated in Ruth 4), and serving as the blood-avenger against a murderer (Num. 35:19). The institution of the goel is applied theologically to God himself, who acts as Israel's redeemer from Egyptian slavery (Ex. 6:6; 15:13) and from Babylonian exile (Isa. 41:14; 43:14). In the New Testament, Christ's redemptive work fulfills this typology as the divine kinsman-redeemer who pays the ransom price for humanity.