RUTH
RUTH is properly placed here in the third division of the Old Testament called “The Writings.” In fact, it was appended in the ancient Jewish canon. Althoughit relates an episode belonging to the time of the Judges, its precise date is unknown. It appears certain, however, that it could not have been written prior to the time of Samuel(see Ruth 4:17-22 ), who is generally supposed to have been its author; and this opinion, in addition to other reasonson which it rests, is confirmed by Ruth4:7 , where it is evident that the history was not compiled till long after thetransactions recorded. The inspiration and canonical authority of the book is attested bythe fact of Ruth's name being inserted by Matthew in the Saviour's genealogy [ Matthew 1:5 ].
Chapter 1
NAOMI RETURNING HOME, RUTH ACCOMPANIES HER
1 Long ago, in the days before Israel had a king and judges ruled the land, there was a famine in the land of Moab.
2. So a man named Elimelech, who belonged to the clan of Ephrath and who lived in Bethlehem in Judah, went with his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion to live for a while in the country of Moab. While they were living there,
3 Elimelech died, and Naomi was left alone with her two sons.
4 The two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and the other a woman named Ruth. But about ten years later,
5 Mahlon and Chilion died, and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons.
6 Some time later Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD (Jesus) had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland.
7 They started out together to go back to Judah, but on the way
8 she said to them, "Go back home and stay with your mothers. May the LORD (Jesus) be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died.
In Eastern countries women occupy apartments separate from those of men, and daughters are most frequently in those of their mother.
9 And may the LORD (Jesus) make it possible for each of you to marry again and have a home." So Naomi kissed them good-bye. But they started crying
10 and said to her, "No! We will go with you to your people."
11 "You must go back, my daughters," Naomi answered. "Why do you want to come with me? Do you think I could have sons again for you to marry?
This alludes to the ancient custom ( Genesis 38:26 ) afterwards expressly sanctioned by the law of Moses ( Deuteronomy 25:5 ), which required a younger son to marry the widow of his deceased brother.
12 Go back home, for I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought there was still hope, and so got married tonight and had sons,
13 would you wait until they had grown up? Would this keep you from marrying someone else? No, my daughters, you know that's impossible. The LORD (Jesus) has turned against me, and I feel very sorry for you."
that is, I am not only not in a condition to provide you with other husbands, but so reduced in circumstances that I cannot think of your being subjected to privations with me. The arguments of Naomi prevailed with Orpah, who returned to her people and her gods. But Ruth clave unto her; and even in the pages of Sterne, that great master of pathos, there is nothing which so calls forth the sensibilities of the reader as the simple effusion he has borrowed from Scripture--of Ruth to her mother-in-law [CHALMERS].
14 Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye and went back home, but Ruth held on to her.
15 So Naomi said to her, "Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go back home with her."
16 But Ruth answered, "Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God (Elohim-The Godhead) will be my God (Elohim-The Godhead).
17 Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried. May the LORD's (Jesus') worst punishment come upon me if I let anything but death separate me from you!"
18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.
19 They went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town became excited, and the women there exclaimed, "Is this really Naomi?"
20 "Don't call me Naomi," she answered; "call me Marah, because Almighty God has made my life bitter.
21 When I left here, I had plenty, but the Lord has brought me back without a thing. Why call me Naomi when the God Almighty (El Shaddai) has condemned me and sent me trouble?"
El Shaddai. The All Sufficient Singular God. Shad means "breast" in Hebrew. I am not sure if this refers to God the Father or Jesus in this case, but I doubt it refers to the Godhead (Elohim)
22 This, then, was how Naomi came back from Moab with Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley harvest was just beginning {which is the begininng of the month of March.}
Ruth 2
1 Now there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi's husband, Elimelech.
2 One day Ruth said to Naomi, "Let me go out into the fields to gather leftover grain behind anyone who will let me do it."And Naomi said, "All right, my daughter, go ahead."
The right of gleaning was conferred by a positive law on the widow, the poor, and the stranger [ Ruth 2:3 ] was not a right that could be claimed; it was a privilege granted or refused according to the good will or favor of the owner.
3 And so she set out. She went and started gleaning in a field, following in the wake of the harvesters. Eventually she ended up in the part of the field owned by Boaz, her father-in-law Elimelech's relative.
4 While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. "The LORD (JESUS) be with you!" he said."The LORD (JESUS) bless you!" the harvesters replied.
5 Boaz asked his young servant who was foreman over the farm hands, "Who is this young woman? Where did she come from?"
6 The foreman said, "Why, that's the Moabite girl, the one who came with Naomi from the country of Moab.
7 She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes' rest over there in the shelter."
Various modes of reaping are practised in the East. Where the crop is thin and short, it is plucked up by the roots. Sometimes it is cut with the sickle. Whether reaped in the one way or the other, the grain is cast into sheaves loosely thrown together, to be subjected to the process of threshing, which takes place, for the most part, immediately after the reaping. Field labors were begun early in the morning--before the day became oppressively hot.
8 Then Boaz spoke to Ruth: "Listen, my daughter. From now on don't go to any other field to glean - stay right here in this one. And stay close to my young women.
9 Watch where they are harvesting and follow them. And don't worry about a thing; I've given orders to my servants not to harass you. When you get thirsty, feel free to go and drink from the water buckets that the servants have filled."
Gleaners were sometimes allowed, by kind and charitable masters, to partake of the refreshments provided for the reapers. The vessels alluded to were skin bottles, filled with water--and the bread was soaked in vinegar ( Ruth 2:14 ); a kind of poor, weak wine, sometimes mingled with a little olive oil--very cooling, as would be required in harvest-time. This grateful refection is still used in the harvest-field.
10 She dropped to her knees, then bowed her face to the ground. "How does this happen that you should pick me out and treat me so kindly - me, a foreigner?"
11 Boaz answered her, "I've heard all about you - heard about the way you treated your mother-in-law after the death of her husband, and how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to live among a bunch of total strangers.
12 May the LORD (JESUS), the God (Elohim-The Godhead) of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully."
13 She said, "Oh sir, such grace, such kindness - I don't deserve it. You've touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don't even belong here!"
14 At the lunch break, Boaz said to her, "Come over here; eat some bread. Dip it in the wine." So she joined the harvesters. Boaz passed the roasted grain to her. She ate her fill and even had some left over.
15 When Ruth went back to work again, Boaz ordered his young men, "Let her gather grain right among the sheaves without stopping her.
16 Better yet, pull some of the good stuff out and leave it for her to glean. Give her special treatment."
The gleaners in the East glean with much success; for a great quantity of corn is scattered in the reaping, as well as in their manner of carrying it. One may judge, then, of the large quantity which Ruth would gather in consequence of the liberal orders given to the servants. These extraordinary marks of favor were not only given from a kindly disposition, but from regard to her good character and devoted attachment to her venerable relative.
17 So Ruth gathered barley there all day, and when she beat out the grain that evening, it came to about half a bushel.
18 She gathered up her gleanings, went back to town, and showed her mother-in-law the results of her day's work; she also gave her the leftovers from her lunch.
19 "So much!" Naomi exclaimed. "Where did you gather all this grain today? Where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you" So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man in whose field she had worked. And she said, "The man I worked with today is named Boaz."
20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May the LORD (JESUS) bless him! He is showing his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband. That man is one of our closest relatives, one of our family redeemers."
-Hebrew, "one of our redeemers," on whom it devolves to protect us, to purchase our lands, and marry you, the widow of his next kinsman. She said, "one of them," not that there were many in the same close relationship, but that he was a very near kinsman, one other individual only having the precedence.
21 Ruth the Moabitess said, "Well, listen to this: He also told me, 'Stick with my workers until my harvesting is finished.'"
both barley and wheat harvests. The latter was at the end of May or the beginning of June.
22 Naomi said to Ruth, "That's wonderful, dear daughter! Do that! You'll be safe in the company of his young women; no danger now of being raped in some stranger's field."
23 So Ruth did it - she stuck close to Boaz's young women, gleaning in the fields daily until both the barley and wheat harvesting were finished. And she continued living with her mother-in-law.
Ruth 3
RUTH LIES AT BOAZ'S FEET, WHO ACKNOWLEDGES THE DUTY OF A KINSMAN
1 Some time later Naomi said to Ruth, "I must find a husband for you, so that you will have a home of your own.
2 Boaz is a close relative of ours, and he's been very kind by letting you gather grain with his workers. Tonight he will be winnowing barley at the threshing floor.
3 Now do as I tell you -- So wash yourself, put on some perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go where he is threshing, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
4 Be sure to notice where he lies down; then go and uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do."
5 "I will do everything you say," Ruth replied.
6 So she went down to the threshing floor that night and followed the instructions of her mother-in-law.
7 After Boaz had finished his meal and wine, he was in a good mood {probably a little under the influence), he lay down beside the heap of grain and went to sleep. Then Ruth came quietly, uncovered his nakedness, and lay down.
Christians and Bible scholars ofteb=n do not want to accept this, but Naomi understood the Law well. Not only was the Levirate obligation there (Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother's widow) but also that the Law understood that if a man has sex with an unmarried woman, he is obliged to marry her. This is what is going on here! Ruth fully understood what her task was to do! It was to have sex with Boaz, so he would marry her!
8 Around midnight, Boaz suddenly woke up and turned over. He was surprised to find a woman lying sexually with him!
9 "Who are you?" he demanded."I am your servant Ruth," she replied. "Pull the blanket over both of us {to become one through sex}, for you are now my family redeemer {husband!}."
Remember, the sex act and not a marriage ceremony is what God considers as the true marriage act! This is now their honeymoon! 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.
10 "The LORD (Jesus) bless you, my daughter!" Boaz exclaimed. "You are showing more family loyalty now than ever by not running after a younger man, whether rich or poor.
11 Now don't worry about a thing, my daughter. I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are an honorable woman.
IE: I will legally and marry you in public to keep your standing in the city!
12 But there is one problem. While it is true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am.
13 Stay here tonight, and in the morning I will talk to him. If he is willing to redeem you, then let him marry you. But if he is not willing, then as surely as the LORD (Jesus) lives, I will marry you! Now lie down here until morning."
14 So Ruth lay with Boaz until the morning, but she got up before it was light enough for people to recognize each other. For Boaz said, "No one must know that a woman was here {sleeping with me} at the threshing floor."
15 Boaz also said to her, "Bring your veil and spread it out." He measured out six scoops of barley into the cloak and helped her put it on her back. Then Boaz returned to the town.
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.
16 When Ruth went back to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, "What happened, my daughter?" Ruth told Naomi everything Boaz had done for her,
17 and she added, "He gave me these six scoops of barley and said, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'"
18 Then Naomi said to her, "Just be patient, my daughter, until we hear what happens. The man won't rest until he has followed through on this. He will settle it today."
Ruth 4
BOAZ CALLS INTO JUDGMENT THE NEXT KINSMAN – MARRIES RUTH
1 Boaz went to the meeting place at the town gate and sat down there. Then Elimelech's nearest relative, the man whom Boaz had mentioned, came by, and Boaz called to him, "Come over here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down.
a roofed building, unenclosed by walls; the place where, in ancient times, and in many Eastern towns still, all business transactions are made, and where, therefore, the kinsman was most likely to be found. No preliminaries were necessary in summoning one before the public assemblage; no writings and no delay were required. In a short conversation the matter was stated and arranged--probably in the morning as people went out, or at noon when they returned from the field.
2 Then Boaz got ten of the leaders of the town and asked them to sit down there too. When they were seated,
as witnesses. In ordinary circumstances, two or three were sufficient to attest a bargain; but in cases of importance, such as matrimony, divorce, conveyancing of property, it was the Hebrew practice to have ten 1 Kings 21:8 .
3 he said to his relative, "Now that Naomi has come back from Moab, she wants to sell the field that belonged to our relative Elimelech,
Both Naomi and Ruth had an interest in the land during their lives; but Naomi alone was mentioned, not only because she directed all the negotiations, but because the introduction of Ruth's name would awaken a suspicion of the necessity of marrying her, before the first proposition was answered.
4 and I think you ought to know about it. Now then, if you want it, buy it in the presence of these men sitting here. But if you don't want it, say so, because the right to buy it belongs first to you and then to me." The man said, "I will buy it."
5 Boaz said, "Very well, if you buy the field from Naomi, then you are also buying Ruth, the Moabite widow, so that the field will stay in the dead man's family."
6 The man answered, "In that case I will give up my right to buy the field, because it would mean that my own children would not inherit it. You buy it; I would rather not."
7 Now in those days, to settle a sale or an exchange of property, it was the custom for the seller to take off his sandal and give it to the buyer. In this way the Israelites showed that the matter was settled.
8 So when the man said to Boaz, "You buy it," he took off his sandal and gave it to Boaz.
HE MARRIES RUTH
9 Then Boaz said to the leaders and all the others there, "You are all witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and to his sons Chilion and Mahlon.
10 In addition, Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, becomes my wife. This will keep the property in the dead man's family, and his family line will continue among his people and in his hometown. You are witnesses to this today."
11 The leaders and the others said, "Yes, we are witnesses. May the LORD (JESUS) make your wife become like Rachel and Leah, who bore many children to Jacob. May you become rich in the clan of Ephrath and famous in Bethlehem.
the Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah--This was the usual bridal benediction.
12 May the children that the LORD (JESUS) will give you by this young woman make your family like the family of Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar."
13 So Boaz took Ruth home as his wife. The LORD (JESUS) blessed her, and she became pregnant and had a son.
14 The women said to Naomi, "Praise the LORD (JESUS)! HE has given you a grandson today to take care of you. May the boy become famous in Israel!
15 Your daughter-in-law loves you, and has done more for you than seven sons. And now she has given you a grandson, who will bring new life to you and give you security in your old age."
16 Naomi took the child, held him close, and took care of him.
17 The women of the neighborhood named the boy Obed. They told everyone, "A son has been born to Naomi!" Obed became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.
18 This is the family line from Perez to David: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.
These last few paragraphs are probably edition by EZRA or maybe even Nathan, during David's days, to update the story and give it more meaning.
To appreciate how Boaz foreshadowed Christ, we must first understand the significance of an ancient Israelite law concerning the kinsman- redeemer (Hebrew: go’el). This legal statute helped ensure that inherited land remained within the family. It stated, "If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem [Hebrew: ga’al, the same root as go’el] what his countryman has sold" (Leviticus 25:25). Both words, go’el and ga’al, occur frequently in chapters 2 and 3 of Ruth. Since Boaz was a kinsman (go’el) of Naomi, he was eventually able to redeem (ga’al) her land through marriage to Naomi’s daughter-in-law Ruth. | Presumably, Naomi and her husband had previously sold the land before they moved to Moab. The concern Boaz displayed as kinsman-redeemer to the widow reflects an aspect of God’s own character. "Yahweh is the go’el of the fatherless and widow and pleads their cause" (Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 2, p. 353; see also Proverbs 23:10-11 and Jeremiah 50:34). In the New Testament, we see the ultimate kinsman-redeemer in Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from sin by shedding his blood (1 Peter 1:18-19). In many respects, Boaz typifies Christ. Donald A. Leggett writes, "In the actions of Boaz as goel we see foreshadowed the saving work of Jesus Christ, his later descendant." | Dr. Leggett goes on to explain: "As Boaz had the right of redemption and yet clearly was under no obligation to intervene on Ruth’s behalf, so it is with Christ. As Boaz, seeing the plight of the poor widows, came to their rescue because his life was governed by Yahweh and his laws, so also of the Messiah it is prophesied that his life would be governed by the law of God and that he would deal justly and equitably with the poor and with those who were oppressed (Ps. 72:2, 4, 12, 13; Isa. 11:4)" (The Levirate and Goel Institutions in the Old Testament With Special Attention to the Book of Ruth, Mack Publishing Company, 1974, p. 298). www.wcg.org/lit/bible/hist/ruth3.htm |
