And now it is true, that I am thy near kinsman,.... Her husband and he being brothers' sons, so own cousins:
howbeit, there is a kinsman nearer than I, who was, the Jews say w, the brother of her husband's father, and so his uncle, which was a nearer relation than an own cousin.
w Midrash Ruth, ut supra. (31. 4. & 34. 2) Jarchi in loc.