Then Naomi her mother in law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? (2) And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor. (3) Wash thy self therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. (4) And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do. (5) And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me I will do.
If there were no other evidences in the whole history of the Book of Ruth, to lead to the conviction that the grand scope of it is of a spiritual signification; the circumstance here related, together with what follows in consequence thereof, would incline me to this opinion. To persons not conversant with Jewish customs, and especially if ignorant of the Jewish laws, in reference to that grand point, the expectation of the Messiah, Naomi's advice to Ruth, and the deportment of Ruth in obedience to that advice, must appear highly reprehensible and indecent. But if the Reader, before he prosecutes this chapter any further, would pause, and consider what the Lord appointed Israel concerning the marriage of widows in relationship; neither the conduct of Naomi nor Ruth will be found indecorous or improper, but agreeable to the written law. Let the Reader first, therefore, be told, that with an eye to what God had promised concerning the redemption of our fallen nature, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head: e very Jew, unconscious from what womb this child should be born, became extremely solicitous to have a numerous offspring: and the going childless was considered as one of the most awful punishments of heaven. Write ye this man childless, (saith the Lord) a man that shall not prosper in the earth. See Jeremiah 22:30. Hence the distress of Jephthah: Judges 11:34-35. I would desire the Reader, when he hath made his own remarks on this part of the subject, to go on and consider yet further, how the Lord himself, as if to encourage this laudable desire of children among his people, with an eye to the Messiah, appointed certain laws to keep up the stock of families. Thus the precept ran, If brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. And observe what follows: And it shall be that the first-born which she beareth, shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. See Deuteronomy 25:5-10. And if the Reader will consult the whole passage, he will see that the object was considered so important, that the refusal subjected the man which objected to do the brother's part to an opprobrious name in Israel. I do not detain the Reader in this place, with adding the sweet spiritual truths which arise out of it, in reference to our blessed brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, these will meet us in their proper place, before we close our observations on this chapter. But what I am chiefly desirous of at this time, in opening the view of Ruth's conduct and Naomi's advice, is to remove from the mind of the Christian Reader every idea of indelicacy and improper behaviour in Naomi's counsel to Ruth. It is worthy remark, that this law was considered so universally binding and so sacredly attended to, that it was not lost sight of in the days of our blessed Lord. See Matthew 22:23-24.