Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Ruth 2:11

in Ruth 2

Boaz replied, “I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you did not know before.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

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

KJV

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.

⋯

This verse in Ruth 2

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

But that which especially he commended her for was that she had left her own country, and had become a proselyte to the Jewish religion; for so the Chaldee expounds it: "Thou hast come to be proselyted, and to dwell among a people whom thou knowest not. " Those that leave all, to embrace the true religion, are worthy of double honour.

This site's exposition

At this, she fell on her face

on Ruth 2:10-11

She asks why she has found favor "even though I am a foreigner", using the stronger of the two Hebrew terms for an outsider, one without the standing the law gave a resident alien. Boaz answers with chapter 1 in one sentence, "how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth". Keil and Delitzsch and Matthew Henry both hear Genesis 12:1 behind that clause.

This site's exposition

how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth

The words recall the call of Abraham at Genesis 12:1 to leave his land, his relatives and his father's house. Matthew Henry reports the Targum reading her as a convert who came to a people she did not know. Boaz knows all she has done.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Humility teaches us, not only not to praise ourselves, but not to be forward to publish others' praises of us. (3.) We are here told what Naomi said to it. [1.] She prayed heartily for him that had been her daughter's benefactor, even before she knew who it was (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

And Boaz answered and said unto her,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

It has been fully related to me. An action where the agent is not specified.
Ibn Ezra: Spain, 1089–1167 · Ibn Ezra on Ruth 2:11:1, via Sefaria, Sefaria Community Translation
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Thy reward. Like "the tally of bricks," it is a noun from the intensive binyan (conjugation) with an additional mem (מ).
Ibn Ezra: Spain, 1089–1167 · Ibn Ezra on Ruth 2:12:1, via Sefaria, Sefaria Community Translation

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

28 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּ֤עַןand he answered

    vaiyaanH6030 →331 times

  • בֹּ֙עַז֙Boaz

    boazH1162 →24 times

  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • לָ֔הּto <the> her

    lah

  • הֻגֵּ֨דcertainly <to be told>

    hugedH5046 →370 times

  • הֻגַּ֜דit has been told

    hugadH5046 →370 times

  • לִ֗יto <the> me

    li

  • כֹּ֤לall

    kolH3605 →5413 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־that

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • עָשִׂית֙you have done

    ʾasitH6213 →2628 times

  • אֶת־with

    ʾet-H854 →929 times

  • חֲמוֹתֵ֔ךְmother-in-law your

    chamotekhH2545 →11 times

  • אַחֲרֵ֖יafter

    ʾachareiH310 →715 times

  • מ֣וֹת[the] death of

    motH4194 →

  • אִישֵׁ֑ךְhusband your

    ʾishekhH376 →1663 times

  • וַתַּֽעַזְבִ֞יand you left

    vataazviH5800 →215 times

  • אָּבִ֣יךְfather your

    ʾavikhH1 →1212 times

  • וְאִמֵּ֗ךְand mother your

    veimekhH517 →

  • וְאֶ֙רֶץ֙and [the] land of

    veeretzH776 →2504 times

  • מֽוֹלַדְתֵּ֔ךְkindred your

    moladtekhH4138 →

  • וַתֵּ֣לְכִ֔יand you came

    vatelekhiH1980 →1546 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • עַ֕םa people

    ʾamH5971 →1873 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רwhich

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • יָדַ֖עַתְּyou knew

    yadaatH3045 →945 times

  • תְּמ֥וֹלyesterday

    temolH8543 →

  • שִׁלְשֽׁוֹם׃three days ago

    shilshomH8032 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

11 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Luke 14:33In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.9 worksLuke 18:29–30“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God6 worksPsalms 45:10Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,4 worksRuth 1:14–22Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.4 worksLuke 5:11And when they had brought their boats ashore, they left everything and followed Him.4 worksPsalms 37:5–6Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.4 works
The other 5 cross-references, with their words ▾
Luke 5:23Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’3 worksHebrews 11:8–9By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.3 worksHebrews 11:24–26By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.3 worksRuth 1:11But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands?3 works1 Kings 8:41And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name—2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Luke 14:33

    In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.

    it leads to

    • Luke 5:28

      and Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Luke 18:28–30

      “Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow You.”

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Philippians 3:7–8

      But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.

    • 1 John 2:15–16

      Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

    • Luke 14:26

      “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.

  • Through

    Psalms 45:10

    Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,

    it leads to

    • Song of Solomon 2:10–13

      My beloved calls to me, “Arise, my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one.

    • Genesis 12:1

      Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

    • Matthew 10:37

      Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;

Where this verse is studied

About Ruth

Ruth and Boaz — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Ruth and Boaz — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Ruth: the study guide →Read Ruth 2 →

This page draws on John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Ruth 2 →