Ruthchapter 3
18 verses · Samuel, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
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?
Introduction
Samuel, by tradition, History, Ruth Overview.
This chapter takes place in one night at the end of harvest, on the threshing floor outside Bethlehem. Its first hearers knew why an owner slept beside his grain and what a widow risked in going there. Naomi, who had given up hope, now makes a plan of her own. The scene is private and easily misread, and the narrator tells it with great restraint. Listen for words from chapter 2 that return here with new weight. Notice how each person guards the good name of the others. Read it as the turn on which the whole book depends.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who understood the duty of a family redeemer
- What
- A narrative of one night in which Ruth, on Naomi's plan, asks Boaz at the threshing floor to act as her kinsman-redeemer.
- Where
- The threshing floor where Boaz winnowed his barley outside Bethlehem, and Naomi's house in the town.
- When
- One night at the close of the harvest season, in the days of the judges.
- Why
- To show how a widow's claim to redemption and marriage was made, and how a man and a woman guarded each other's honor in making it.
Historical context
A threshing floor was a flat, hard-packed circle on high ground where the evening breeze could be used. The cut grain was spread out and trodden or dragged over with a sledge, then tossed into the air with a fork so the wind carried the chaff off and the heavy kernels fell back. Winnowing happened at evening because that is when the wind rose, and the men slept there afterward guarding the heap against theft. The work was ordinary, public and seasonal.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The Hebrew word behind kinsman-redeemer is goel, and it named a real legal office in the extended family. The nearest able relative was obliged to buy back land a poor relative had sold, to buy a relative out of debt-slavery, and to avenge a killing. A separate custom, the levirate, required a dead man's brother to father a son who would carry the dead man's name and inheritance. Naomi's plan puts both duties on one man.
Ruth's approach is a formal claim in symbolic form. Uncovering the feet and lying down there is a petition, and the word she uses for the corner of a garment is the word for a wing. Spreading a garment over a woman was a recognised gesture of taking her under one's protection as a wife, and Boaz answers her as a legal petitioner rather than as a suitor. The six measures of barley he pours into her cloak before dawn are a pledge heavy enough to prove intent.
Significance
The first hearers had just come out of Judges, where a Levite pushed a woman out of a door at Gibeah and men seized wives from the vineyards at Shiloh. Here a man finds a woman at his feet at midnight, and his first act is to guard her name and follow the law exactly.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The night ends with the obstacle stated aloud, that there is a redeemer nearer than he is. Boaz declines to take by preference what belongs to another man by right, and the hearers are left waiting for the gate to open in the morning.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
One measure of charity is read out of this chapter, and it is still a measure. On the six measures of barley Boaz sends back, Rashi rules out six se'ah. His ground is that "it is not customary for a woman to carry such a [large] load". He takes the number literally as six barleycorns. The reference is Rashi on Ruth 3:15:1, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, CC-BY. The edition's note carries a second reckoning. It sets the amount at a kav, one sixth of a se'ah. It names the Mishnah at Maseches Pe'ah 8:7, which fixes what a poor person travelling from place to place must be given. That floor is half a kav of wheat. On this reckoning, attributed in the note to Malbim, Boaz sent a whole kav, half for Ruth and half for Naomi. The chapter therefore carries a named quantity from the law of the poor rather than a gesture.
How it is read
The classical commentators read the threshing floor as a modest scene carried out under instruction. They say so at each point where a reader might stumble. Naomi's orders to bathe and to anoint are read as commands about the soul. Rashi glosses the washing as being "From the contamination of your [past] idolatry", since Ruth would not need telling to bathe. He glosses the scenting as "These are the [Torah's] precepts". The references are Rashi on Ruth 3:3:1 and 3:3:2, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, CC-BY. Ruth is then read as having improved on the order she was given. Rashi reports that she reversed it. Her reasoning was "If I go down when I am dressed up, whoever meets me or sees me will think that I am a harlot". She went down first and adorned herself after, and the note cites Maseches Shabbos 113b. The reference is Rashi on Ruth 3:6:1, same edition.
Boaz's good heart at 3:7 is read as study rather than drink, "Because he engaged in Torah [study]". The Targum's alternative in the note is that his prayers had been accepted and the famine had ended. The reference is Rashi on Ruth 3:7:1, same edition. His waking is read as fright, since "He thought it was a demon and wanted to scream" (Rashi on Ruth 3:8:1, same edition). Ruth's request is read as a proposal of marriage in plain terms. It is "The corner of your garment to cover me with your cloak; and this is an expression of marriage". Malbim's reading in the note takes the image from birds spreading their wings. The reference is Rashi on Ruth 3:9:1, same edition. Boaz's care at dawn is read as guarding a reputation. His words are "It does not befit my honor that it should be known that the woman came to the threshing floor". Alshich's alternative in the note is that he was guarding hers rather than his own. The reference is Rashi on Ruth 3:14:1, same edition. The nearer kinsman is worked as a matter of family degree. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi rules that Salmon, Elimelech and Tov were brothers, so Boaz was Elimelech's nephew and Tov the closer relation. The reference is Rashi on Ruth 3:12:1, same edition. Ibn Ezra reads Naomi's opening word as the plain condition of a widow, "For a woman does not have rest until she is married". He defers the woman of worth to his commentary on Proverbs. The references are Ibn Ezra on Ruth 3:1:1 and 3:11:1, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0. Malbim comments at 3:4, 3:5 and 3:17 with no English version in the corpus, so they stand as citations. They are Malbim on Ruth 3:4:1, 3:5:1 and 3:17:1.
Two things here are worth a Christian reader's attention. The first is that the classical Jewish reading of this scene is the modest one. That is one of the two readings this site already records. It is held on the Christian side by Robert L. Hubbard Jr. and Edward F. Campbell Jr. Against it stands the reading of Danna Nolan Fewell and David M. Gunn, that the narrator wrote the scene to carry tension. Both are carried in src/components/book/dossier-content/ruth.ts, and this site states no verdict between them. The second is that the tradition reads the six measures as a promise of descendants. That reading runs into messianic ground. Rashi takes them as a hint of a son blessed with the six blessings of Yeshaya 11:2. The edition's note attributes to the Targum a list of six righteous men to descend from the marriage, ending with the Messiah. The reference is Rashi on Ruth 3:15:1, same edition. The expectation is real and it is theirs, and the person it waits for is where Judaism and the Christian confession part.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-seven Midrash and three Talmud. Every one is a locator without text. This site therefore cites where the rabbis took the chapter up rather than what they said there. Naomi's plan for Ruth's rest draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:1:1 and 4:17:1. With them stands Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 24:14:8. The winnowing at the floor draws Chullin 91b:1, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Chullin 7:2 and Ein Yaakov, Khullin 7:3. The washing and anointing draw Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 15:1 and 15:2, with Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 15:1. The instruction about the feet draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:4:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 19:35:4. That second one is filed at the night in the cave after Sodom, the passage Moab's own descent is traced from. Ruth's obedience draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:5:1. With it stands Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Midrash Keri V'lo Ketiv 11. Her going down draws Bereshit Rabbah 51:10 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:6:1. Boaz's sleep draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:7:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 15:8:1. His waking draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:8:1 and 3:8:2. Her request for the corner of his garment draws Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 39:7:2. With it stands a chapter of Learning to Read Midrash on the joining of Yosef and Yehuda. His blessing of her draws Bereshit Rabbah 67:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:10:1. His naming her a woman of worth draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 2:1:2 and 3:11:1. The nearer redeemer draws Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 4:4 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:12:1. The oath at 3:13 draws Bamidbar Rabbah 15:16 and Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 2:1:10. The departure before dawn draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:14:1. With it stands a note in the Introductions to Amoraic Literature on Pesachim. The six measures draw Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:15:1. With it stands Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Missing and Extra Letters 1:32. Naomi's question at the door draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:16:1 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 7:4:1. The report Ruth gives draws Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:21 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:20. Naomi's counsel to wait draws Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 3:18:1 and 3:18:2, with Bereshit Rabbah 87:4. The rabbis teach in these places. This site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ruth 3:3:1, 3:3:2, 3:6:1, 3:7:1, 3:8:1, 3:9:1, 3:12:1, 3:14:1 and 3:15:1, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, CC-BY, 2001; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Ruth 3:1:1 and 3:11:1, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Malbim, Malbim on Ruth 3:4:1, 3:5:1 and 3:17:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; The Mishnah, Pe'ah 8:7, named in the edition's note to Rashi on Ruth 3:15:1; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators of scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ruth/3.json, cited by ref alone; MannaFest, the Ruth dossier, src/components/book/dossier-content/ruth.ts, for the two readings of the threshing floor and their holders, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Naomi's plan for the threshing floor
Ruth 3:1-2
Naomi now seeks "a resting place for you", the rest she prayed over both women at 1:9, and this time she works for it. Boaz is named by his relation first, "a relative of ours", the fact the chapter turns on. Winnowing was done in the evening, when the hill wind carried the chaff away, so the hour belongs to the harvest rather than to secrecy.
Ruth 3:1
“Shall I not seek rest for thee - That is, Shall I not endeavor to procure thee a proper husband? See Rth 1:9, and the observations at the end of that chapter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Winnowing barley meant tossing the threshed grain into the wind, so the heavy kernels fell back on the threshing floor and the chaff blew away. The wind rose in the evening, so Boaz works tonight. Naomi knows where her relative will be.
Ruth 3:2
“He winnoweth barley tonight - It is very likely that the winnowing of grain was effected by taking up, in a broad thin vessel or sieve, a portion of the corn, and letting it down slowly in the wind; thus the grain would, by its own weight, fall in one place, while the chaff, etc., would be carried to a distance by the wind.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ruth 3:2
“As Nabal and Absalom had feasts at their sheep-shearing, so Boaz at his winnowing. Naomi thought Ruth the most proper person to do it herself; and perhaps it was the usage in that country that in this case the woman should make the demand; so much is intimated by the law, Deut. xxv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ruth 3:2
“The threshing-floor, which was commonly on the harvest-field, was carefully leveled with a large cylindric roller and consolidated with chalk, that weeds might not spring up, and that it might not chop with drought.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ruth 3:3-5
Washing, anointing and a change of clothes mark the end of mourning at 2 Samuel 12:20, so Ruth lays down the widow before asking to stop being one. Naomi times every step around Boaz: after he eats and drinks, where he lies, out of his sight until then. Ruth replies only "I will do everything you say", with no question about a plan that puts her alone there at night.
Ruth 3:3
“And upon this occasion she would have an easier access to him in private than she could have at his own house. And thus far was well enough. Her coming to lie down at his feet, when he was asleep in his bed, had such an appearance of evil, was such an approach towards it, and might have been such an occasion of it, that we know not well how to justify it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke says plainly that the plan could have ruined Ruth had Boaz been a lesser man. He suspects Naomi knew more than she told. The verse puts the next move in the hands of Boaz, who will explain what she should do.
Ruth 3:4
“Uncover his feet, and lay thee down - It is said that women in the East, when going to the bed of their lawful husbands, through modesty, and in token of subjection, go to the bed’s foot, and gently raising the clothes, creep under them up to their place. See Calmet. On the whole, we must say, had not Boaz been a person of extraordinary piety, prudence, and continence, this experiment might have been fatal to Ruth. We cannot easily account for this transaction, probably Naomi knew more than she revealed to her daughter-in-law.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ruth answered Naomi in one sentence. She will do everything Naomi said, and at verse 9 she does more than the plan: she speaks first and asks Boaz to spread his garment over her as her kinsman-redeemer.
Ruth 3:5
“7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. 8 And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Spread thy skirt over thy handmaid
Ruth 3:6-8
The narrator says she "did everything her mother-in-law had instructed her to do", which is how this book handles obedience. Boaz lies "at the end of the heap of grain" because the owner guarded it through the night. Matthew Henry grants the scene looked like evil and he cannot fully justify it, while Adam Clarke reads a customary approach only a man like Boaz could safely meet.
Ruth 3:6
“And she went down unto the floor,.... From the city of Bethlehem, from her mother-in-law's house there, to the threshingfloor of Boaz, which was at some distance from it, and lower: and did according to all that her mother in law bade her; both before she went, and after: she washed and anointed herself, and put on her best clothes before she went down, and when she was there took care not to make herself known to any, especially to Boaz, and marked the place where he lay down after he had supped.”
The phrase describes the ease of a man after a good meal at the close of harvest. Adam Clarke notes that owners stayed with the grain on the open floor until it was secured. Ruth comes to him in secret.
Ruth 3:7
“When Boaz had eaten and drunk - The Targum adds, “He blessed the name of the Lord, who had heard his prayer, and removed famine from the land of Israel.” Went to lie down - As the threshing-floors of the Eastern nations are in general in the open air, it is very likely that the owner or some confidential person continued in the fields till the grain was secured, having a tent in the place where the corn was threshed and winnowed. Boaz seems to have acted thus.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke notes that the verb for turned over is rare and puzzled even the Aramaic translator. He takes the start as proof that Boaz knew nothing of the plan. Boaz wakes at midnight to a woman at his feet.
Ruth 3:8
“The man was afraid, and turned himself - The verb ילפת yillapheth, which we render he turned himself, has puzzled even the Targumist, who translates the clause thus: “The man trembled, and his flesh became like a (boiled) turnip through fear.” It is fully evident Boaz had no intimation of the present proceedings.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The word behind "corner of your garment" is kanaph, wing, which Boaz used at 2:12 when he blessed her as one sheltering under the wings of Israel's God. She asks him to answer his own blessing, and at Ezekiel 16:8 God spreads his cloak over Jerusalem and makes a covenant. The Hebrew behind "kinsman-redeemer" is goel, whose right over land stands at Leviticus 25:25.
Ruth 3:9
“Spread therefore thy skirt over thine hand maid - Hebrew, Spread thy wing. The wing is the emblem of protection, and is a metaphor taken from the young of fowls, which run under the wings of their mothers, that they may be saved from birds of prey. The meaning here is, Take me to thee for wife; and so the Targum has translated it, Let thy name be called on thy handmaid to take me for wife, because thou art the redeemer; i.e., thou art the גאל goel, the kinsman, to whom the right of redemption belongs.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ruth 3:9
“To spread a skirt over one is, in the East, a symbolical action denoting protection. To this day in many parts of the East, to say of anyone that he put his skirt over a woman, is synonymous with saying that he married her; and at all the marriages of the modern Jews and Hindus, one part of the ceremony is for the bridegroom to put a silken or cotton cloak around his bride.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ruth 3:10-11
The word behind "kindness" is chesed, which Naomi prays over the two Moabite women at 1:8 and Boaz now names of Ruth. He reads her approach as loyalty to the dead, since she passed over the younger men for the kinsman. At verse 11, "a woman of noble character" renders eshet chayil, as at Proverbs 12:4 and 31:10, and the same word chayil describes Boaz at 2:1.
Ruth 3:10
“She received not the addresses of young men (much less did she seek them) whether poor or rich, but was willing to marry as the divine law directed, though it was to an old man, because it was for the honour and interest of the family into which she had matched, and for which she had an entire kindness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A woman of noble character is the phrase Proverbs 31:10 uses for the wife beyond price. The same noun described Boaz as a man of standing at 2:1, so the book sets the two as equals. The whole town already knows her worth.
Ruth 3:12-13
The nearer redeemer enters in one clause and is never named, and chapter 4 exists to get past him. Boaz answers with an oath, "as surely as the LORD lives", the second in the book after Ruth's at 1:17. Her request joins the brother's duty of Deuteronomy 25:5 and the kinsman's right over land at Leviticus 25:25, which no statute joins, and Boaz takes both as one obligation.
Ruth 3:12
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ruth 3:12
“There is a kinsman nearer than I - It is very likely that Naomi was not acquainted with this circumstance. Some have supposed that there was a brother of Elimelech remaining, who was nearer than Boaz, who is supposed to have been only a nephew; the former, therefore, must have a prior right.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill reads the command to stay here tonight as care for her safety on the road in the dark. Boaz swears as surely as the LORD lives that if the nearer relative will not redeem her, he will redeem her. Either way, Ruth will be redeemed.
Six measures of barley before daylight
Ruth 3:14-16
She leaves before anyone could recognize her, and Boaz orders that no one know "a woman came to the threshing floor", guarding the name verse 11 says the town honors. The text never names the unit of the "six measures", and readings run from six omers to six seahs, Albert Barnes reckoning the larger a load Boaz lifted onto her. At verse 16 Ruth tells Naomi everything.
Ruth 3:14
“Note, We must always take care, not only to keep a good conscience, but to keep a good name: either we must not do that which, though innocent, is liable to be misinterpreted, or, if we do, we must not let it be known. We must avoid not only sin, but scandal. There was likewise a particular reason for concealment here.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Albert Barnes takes the six measures of barley as seahs, two ephahs in all, twice what she gleaned on her first day. The load in her shawl was heavy. The Hebrew never names the measure, so its size is a reckoning.
Ruth 3:15
“Bring the veil that thou hast upon thee, and hold it--Eastern veils are large sheets--those of ladies being of red silk; but the poorer or common class of women wear them of blue, or blue and white striped linen or cotton. They are wrapped round the head, so as to conceal the whole face except one eye.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ruth 3:15
“The vail - Quite a different word from that rendered “vail,” in Gen 38:14. It seems rather to mean a kind of loose cloak, worn over the ordinary dress (see the margin). Six measures - i. e. six seahs, in all two ephahs, twice as much as she gleaned Rth 3:17, and a heavy load to carry; for which reason he laid it on her, probably placed it on her head. It is well known that women can carry great weights when duly positioned on their heads.”
Naomi asks her daughter a question that in Hebrew is literally who are you. Albert Barnes takes it as Naomi unsure in the half light, and John Wesley as wonder that Ruth returned to her mother-in-law so early. Ruth reports everything Boaz did.
Ruth 3:16
“Who art thou, my daughter? - In the dim twilight Rth 3:14 her mother was not sure at first who the young woman was, who sought admittance into the house.”
Ruth 3:17-18
Boaz sends the barley with a word for Naomi, "Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed", and the Hebrew behind empty is the word Naomi used of herself at 1:21. Her summary of her life is answered by grain before it is answered by a child. Her last line, "Wait, my daughter", hands the matter to a man who "will not rest unless he has resolved the matter today".
Naomi's word is literally sit, the same verb used of the kinsman and the elders who sit at the gate in 4:1 and 4:2. Ruth has done all she can, and the rest belongs to Boaz. Naomi trusts him to settle it today.
Ruth 3:18
“Until thou know how the matter will fall - That is, whether he who is nearer of kin than Boaz will take thee to wife; do not return again till this thing is determined. Boaz lost no time to bring this to an issue, as we shall see in the following chapter, Ruth 4 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative prose, one night scene outside the town, which the book page titles The threshing floor: Ruth's bold appeal at 3:1 to 18, as guide classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Rest, prayed for and then worked for | Naomi prayed on the road that the LORD would give each woman rest in the house of a husband, at 1:9. She opens this chapter going after the same thing and working for it instead of asking for it. The chapter closes on the word again at verse 18, where she says Boaz will not rest until the matter is settled.the site's Ruth exposition, note on 3:1 to 2, citing Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871. | Ruth 1:9, Ruth 3:1, Ruth 3:18 |
| Who are you, asked twice in one night | Boaz wakes at midnight and asks who she is at verse 9. Naomi asks the same three Hebrew words at verse 16 when she comes home. Ruth answers the first by naming herself his servant and asking for the corner of his garment, and answers the second by telling the whole of it.the site's Ruth exposition, note on 3:14 to 16, citing Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1834 to 1885, and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710. | Ruth 3:9, Ruth 3:16 |
| Four instructions, obeyed without repetition | Naomi tells her to wash, to put on perfume, to wear her best clothes and to go down to the floor unseen until he has eaten. Washing, anointing and a change of clothes are what 2 Samuel 12:20 records a man doing when mourning ends. The narrator then writes only that she did everything her mother-in-law had instructed, which is how this book handles obedience.the site's Ruth exposition, notes on 3:3 to 5 and 3:6 to 8, citing Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763. | Ruth 3:3, Ruth 3:4, Ruth 3:6 |
| Empty, the word handed back | Boaz sends the six measures of barley with a word for Naomi, that she is to go back to her mother-in-law empty-handed. Empty is the Hebrew word Naomi used of herself at 1:21, when she said the LORD had brought her home empty. Her summary of her own life is answered by grain in a shawl before it is answered by a child.the site's Ruth exposition, note on 3:17 to 18, citing Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863. | Ruth 1:21, Ruth 3:17 |
The structure
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Four movements, and the chapter is timed by the night. Verse 2 sets the hour at the winnowing. Verse 8 puts the waking at midnight. Verse 14 has her leave before anyone could recognise her, and verse 18 closes with Naomi saying the matter will be settled that day.
The two laws Ruth's request joins
The duty of Deuteronomy 25:5 falls on a brother who lives with the dead man, and Boaz is no brother to Mahlon. The right of Leviticus 25:25 falls on a kinsman over land. No statute puts the widow and the field into one man's hands, and Boaz takes both up as one obligation at verse 13.
The word chayil
One Hebrew word carries three English renderings across the book. Boaz is a prominent man of noble character at 2:1, Ruth is a woman of noble character at verse 11, and the elders bless Boaz at 4:11. The phrase used of Ruth here is the phrase of Proverbs 31:10, and the Hebrew Bible uses it three times in all, here and at Proverbs 12:4 and Proverbs 31:10.
The oaths
Boaz answers with an oath, as surely as the LORD lives. It is the second oath in the book, after Ruth's own at 1:17, and both are sworn by the name of Israel's God rather than by Chemosh.
The six measures
The text names six of something and never says of what, so the readings run from six omers to six seahs. Albert Barnes reckons the larger figure a load heavy enough that Boaz had to lift it onto her. The measure is left open in the Hebrew and the site leaves it open.
Where the chapter reaches
The request at verse 9 uses kanaph, the word Boaz used at 2:12 of the wings of the God of Israel. Ezekiel 16:8 uses the identical action of God with Jerusalem, where He spreads His skirt over her and a covenant follows. The nearer kinsman introduced in one clause at verse 12 is the whole business of chapter 4.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Danna Nolan Fewell and David M. Gunn, Compromising Redemption: Relating Characters in the Book of Ruth, 1990; Robert L. Hubbard Jr. and Edward F. Campbell Jr., The Book of Ruth, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1988, and Ruth, Anchor Bible, 1975; Stephen Bertman, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1965, carried as a proposed chiasm in the site's Ruth dossier and the site's Ruth guide, src/components/book/guides/ruth/RuthGuide.tsx, the movements table, movement III.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.