Alacrity.

(1.) The husband of Ruth, a wealthy Bethlehemite. By the "levirate law" the duty devolved on him of marrying Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:1-13). He was a kinsman of Mahlon, her first husband.

(2.) The name given (for what reason is unknown) to one of the two (the other was called Jachin) brazen pillars which Solomon erected in the court of the temple (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chronicles 3:17). These pillars were broken up and carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.

Jachin and Boaz

The names of two brazen columns set up in Solomon's temple (1 Kings 7:15-22). Each was eighteen cubits high and twelve in circumference (Jeremiah 52:21, 23; 1 Kings 7:17-21). They had doubtless a symbolical import.