Ruth 2:1-23 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

The Meeting of Boaz and Ruth. Naomi's kinsman quite a different word from the near kinsman (goë l) of Ruth 2:20 is introduced in Heb. words which sometimes denoted a wealthy man, and sometimes a valiant man, so that a peaceful farmer like Boaz is characterised in the same terms as warriors like Gideon and Jephthah (Judges 6:12; Judges 11:1). The name Boaz may mean in Him is strength.

Ruth 2:2. It was a custom, and it became a law, in Israel that the poor, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow should be permitted to glean in the harvest fields (Deuteronomy 24:19 f., Leviticus 23:22).

Ruth 2:3. It was Ruth's hap to glean in Boaz's field. Even a writer who sees the hand of God in everything (Ruth 1:13) may speak of some things as happening: cf. our Lord's words, By chance a certain priest came down that way (Luke 10:31).

Ruth 2:7. Text uncertain, and in the house cannot be right. Probably the clause means simply without resting a moment.

Ruth 2:8 f. It was the task of the young men to reap and of the maidens to gather the sheaves, as in western lands before the days of machinery.

Ruth 2:12. Boaz offers a devout prayer for Ruth, a prayer which he is to be instrumental in fulfilling, though as yet this has not occurred to him.

Ruth 2:13. Ruth gratefully acknowledges that he has comforted her by speaking kindly to her, lit. speaking to her heart (cf. Hosea 2:14; Isaiah 40:2). She was a stranger in a strange land, not without memories of home, and she needed to be comforted, though Keats goes somewhat too far in his sympathy for the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home she stood in tears amid the alien corn. Her home was now, in truth, where Naomi was, and her refuge under the wings of Yahweh, the God of Israel (Ruth 2:12).

Ruth 2:14. Ruth, in the eyes of the law a mere heathen, is invited to dip her morsel in the vinegar along with the reapers of Bethlehem, though the orthodox Jew has always avowed to the Gentile, I will not eat with thee, drink with thee, nor pray with thee.

Ruth 2:16. The bundles were the armfuls that were being gathered into sheaves.

Ruth 2:17. At the end of the day Ruth had an ephah almost a bushel of barley to take home.

Ruth 2:18. A more graphic reading is found in the ancient VSS, and she showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned.

Ruth 2:20. This sounds like a recantation; after all Yahweh has not left off His kindness (contrast Ruth 1:20 f.). One of our near kinsmen means one of those who have the right to redeem for us. Naomi and Ruth need a redeemer (goë l), else Elimelech's property would go to strangers. The function of the near kinsman was of great importance in Heb. family life. If a man was so unfortunate as to have sold himself or his property, the goë l's part was to redeem him or it; if he was killed, the goë l was the avenger of blood; and if he died without personal issue, the goë l endeavoured to prevent his estate from passing to strangers (Leviticus 25:47-49).

Related Commentaries of Ruth 2:1

Ruth 2:1-23

1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.a

2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.

3 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hapb was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

4 And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.

5 Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this?

6 And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:

7 And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

9 Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.

10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?

11 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.

12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

13 Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens.

14 And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.

15 And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproachc her not:

16 And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

17 So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.

18 And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother in law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought forth, and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed.

19 And her mother in law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man's name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz.

20 And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

22 And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meetd thee not in any other field.

23 So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.