[Ruth 2:2] 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.
Biblical Law commanded that whatever accidentally or unconsciously fell from the hands of a reaper had to be left behind for the poor to gather for themselves. Such was Ruth’s intention. The field she randomly chooses to gather remnants from belongs to a relative of Naomi’s husband, and therefore of Ruth’s deceased husband, Mahlon. . Ruth took the responsibility upon herself to provide for them both by following the gleaners in the field, collecting sheaves of grain from what they had dropped.
Seven times in this chapter it refers to the field of Judah, specifically Boaz’s field or another field, and twice to refer to Naomi’s field or parcel of land. Despite the natural fertility of the land, Naomi encountered death and sterility in the land of Moab. At the same time, Ruth, a native of the country of Moab, helped her mother-in-law to find life in the fields of Judah.
The story does not tell us why Naomi did not go with her to glean, may be she was too old or weak to do so.
Glean is a key word and appears twelve times in this chapter. The right to glean was part of the social contract, or obligation of landowners as compassion provision for the poor, no initiative by Ruth would have enabled the two poor widows to survive. Following the male reapers, those who cut and bind the grain are the female gleaners. Their job is to pick up and stems or heads of the precious grain that may elude the reapers as they work rapidly to complete the harvest. The more prosperous farmers were commanded to allow the poor and less fortunate to glean in their fields free of charge.
Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, the fields in Palestine being unenclosed, the phrase signifies that portion of the open ground which lay within the landmarks of Boaz.
Ruth’s covenant loyalty to Naomi meant going to the fields, asking permission of the foreman to glean behind the harvesters, and working hard from early morning to glean behind the reapers, an overseer whose special duty was to superintend the operations in the field, to supply provision to the reapers, and pay them for their labor in the evening.
Various modes of reaping are practiced 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.
She tarried a little in the house that is, the field tent, erected for the occasional rest and refreshment of the laborers. 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 (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.
Comfort meant encouragement given to a foreign woman who was in great difficulty, an assurance of help to an alien widow that would change despair to confidence, a means of practical assistance. He had given her hope of a real change in her life situation.
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. In one day she beats out an ephah, which is about three-fifths of a bushel. The grain must be safeguarded against moisture, theft and marauding animals. The most secluded and secret places are used. Generally, pits for storing the grain are dug in the hard earth, with a comparatively small opening at the top for access. The underground chamber itself might be as much as 8 feet in depth and 4 or 5 feet in breadth, with a mouth of only about 25 inches in diameter at the top. The mouth is then boarded over and covered with straw and earth or turf to conceal its location. In these receptacles grain can be safely stored for a year or longer - until the supply is replenished from a new harvest. Sometimes the storage pit is under the floor of the tent or house where the family lives - usually under the women’s quarters, where it would be least suspected and least accessible to thieves.
Ruth’s reward in fulfillment of Boaz’s wish in verse 12 was a generous portion of barley to sustain Naomi and herself. An ephah was a dry measure weighing between 10 to 14 kg. (20-30 lbs.). This would have been enough food for ten to fourteen days for one person, or five to seven days for two. A day’s wage for the reapers, according to documents from the time, would have been about 1 kg. of grain.
The reward was for hard work. Ruth had to bend down for long hours to pick up the ears of barley left by the reapers. Then she beat them out to separate the husks from the kernels. Next she collected the precious grain in her shawl, slung it over her shoulders, and carried it into Bethlehem. Finally she fulfilled her purpose of going to the fields by giving it to Naomi, along with what was left over of the parched grain from her noon meal. She held nothing back for herself.
Both barley and wheat harvests. The latter was at the end of May or the beginning of June. Naomi told Ruth that because of her vulnerability as a single woman in the harvest field. From verse 9, Ruth kept herself from danger by staying close to Boaz’s female laborers. Naomi’s joy was increased when she learned that Boaz had included Ruth the Moabite in his circle of care by urging her to stay close to his workers. A prudent recommendation to Ruth to accept the generous invitation of Boaz, lest, if she were seen straying into other fields, she might not only run the risk of rude treatment, but displease him by seeming indifferent to his kind liberality. Moreover, the observant mind of the old matron had already discerned, in all Boaz' attentions to Ruth, the germs of a stronger affection, which she wished to increase. Naomi seized the opportunity provided by the harvest – Boaz would be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Her daring plan calling for immediate action.
The place of the encounter carried risk. In Israelite tradition, the threshing floor was not only the place of harvest, but also of immoral practices of the fertility cult (Hos. 9:1). At harvest time men and women would come together on the threshing floor as a way of stimulating powers of fertility (the foreign deities Baal and Asherah) to ensure good crops and increase of flocks and herds.
The winnowing process is performed by throwing up the grain, after being trodden down, against the wind with a shovel. 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. The farmer usually remained all night in harvest-time on the threshing-floor, not only for the protection of his valuable grain, but for the winnowing. That operation was performed in the evening to catch the breezes which blow after the close of a hot day, and which continue for the most part of the night. This duty at so important a season the master undertakes himself; and, accordingly, in the simplicity of ancient manners, Boaz, a person of considerable wealth and high rank, laid himself down to sleep on the barn floor, at the end of the heap of barley he had been winnowing.
Naomi’s expression lie or lie down describing the prone position of both Boaz and Ruth by the heap of corn. To lie with meant sexual embrace, lie down at Boaz’s feet. Boaz was a worthy man who would not take advantage of her.
Uncover his feet – the Hebrew term is derived from the ordinary word for foot, which, in the plural, sometimes means legs (1 Sam. 17:6).
Singular as these directions may appear to us, there was no impropriety in them, according to the simplicity of rural manners in Beth-lehem. In ordinary circumstances these would have seemed indecorous to the world; but in the case of Ruth, it was a method, doubtless conformable to prevailing usage, of reminding Boaz of the duty which devolved on him as the kinsman of her deceased husband. Boaz probably slept upon a mat or skin; Ruth lay crosswise at his feet - a position in which Eastern servants frequently sleep in the same chamber or tent with their master; and if they want a covering, custom allows them that benefit from part of the covering on their master's bed. Resting, as the Orientals do at night, in the same clothes they wear during the day, there was no indelicacy in a stranger, or even a woman, putting the extremity of this cover over her. On Naomi’s advice, she dared to attract Boaz’s attention by a route quite outside the ordinary rules of modesty. Ruth who had left the familiar comforts of her Moabite home – where, tradition has it, she was of noble family – to live in a new society where she would be treated for some time as a stranger. She had already made one bold move, following the righteous and kind Naomi in order to better her life morally and spiritually. In a sense she had taken the older woman as her spiritual guide: “Where you die, I will die.” Then, with Boaz, she was willing to take a still greater step – exposing herself to the risk of public shame – to secure a husband who exemplified the kindness she had admire in Naomi and to make a place for herself in the new society. In short, Ruth put her womanhood and reputation on the line in order to shape her own future.
Marriage – the main point of the marriage was not the acquisition of a piece of land. Boaz stated before the witnesses at the gate his full acceptance of Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife. She was not to be his female slave, or his household servant, but his wife. This marriage was the formation of one flesh.
Partners bring to marriage their ties to past generations. Ruth’s ties were to Mahlon, her late husband who had died in Moab, far away from Bethlehem. Boaz’s obligation in marring her was to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance. This meant three areas of continuity: the family circle, the public memory, and a secure place for future generations.
The people at the gate gave the newly married pair three wishes, each of which emphasized the role of the new family in strengthening the whole people of G-d.
1. Build the house of Israel - meaning the whole people of Israel. Ruth would emulate the two ancestral women, Rachel and Leah. Yahweh gave each power to conceive children. Ruth had been married for a number of years without children, and could be considered barren. The effect of the blessing was that the children of Ruth and Boaz would build up the whole people of G-d.
2. Came in two parts that Boaz, with Ruth by his side, would prosper in Ephrathah. A family of worth would have strength to do good works in their community. This is the only example where it is possible to interpret the phrase here translated prosper to mean produce children.
The second part was that this family would make Ephrathah (Bethlehem) famous. Ruth in later years would understand that this wish had been fulfilled in the coming of David, the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah.
The blessing tells how Ruth’s son, and then Ruth herself, would bring fullness to Naomi who once called her empty. The women spoke of the newborn child as a gift to Naomi from Yahweh who would, in future years, bring three benefits to her.
1. Protector – as her next of kin with the right and duty to redeem, the child would protect Naomi, the childless widow, from poverty or other kinds of difficulty.
2. Restored – the grandson would be a restorer of life. The Hebrew expression occurs seven times in the OT, with varying translations. The effect of food on the starving is to revive their strength (Lam. 1:11, 19). The effect of a comforter is to revive…courage (Lam. 1:16). The work of a defender is to rescue…life from enemy attacks (Ps. 35:17). Yahweh’s covenant teaching (Torah), as lived and taught by this grandson, would mean reviving the soul of Naomi (Ps. 19:7), restoring her courage, and strength for life.
3. Nourisher – the newborn child would become for Naomi a nourisher of your old age. The women of Bethlehem described Naomi’s old age by a word that means to be gray or have gray hair. Old age was considered as a time of respect, honor, and beauty (Lev. 19:32; Prov. 16:31; 20:29), it is seen as a period of life marked by declining strength (1 Kgs. 1:1), failing eyesight (Gen. 27:48:10), disease (1 Kgs. 15:23), and exploitation (Isa. 47:6). Old age meant days of trouble (Eccl. 12:1). It signified a period of life, of a widow, when there is need for a nourisher. As nourisher of Naomi’s old age, her grandson would be obedient to the instruction, ‘do not despise your mother when she is old (Prov. 23:22). Ruth’s son would be G-d’s nourishing hands in her old age, and be a sign of the coming salvation for the remnant of this people (Zech. 8:6).
Showing posts with label Ruth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ruth. Show all posts
Kinsmen Redeemer
[Ruth 2:1] And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
Boaz – four facts about him:
1. He was Naomi’s kinsman on her husband’s side.
2. He was a prominent rich man, a landowner who employed a large group of laborers in the harvest, and who was well able to be of help to the two poor widows who had just arrived.
3. There is no explicit reference to his age, but he was older than the young men in his employment.
4. Kinsman means of the same clan. Boaz was of the family of Elimelech, same as Naomi’s late husband. The Hebrew term translated family designates a kinship group larger than the immediate family unit or father’s house and smaller than the clan or tribe. Membership in the extended family made Boaz a possible redeemer who could come to the aid of Naomi and her daughter-in-law. Thus the next of kin or redeemer is the one bearing the responsibility for rescuing or redeeming the relative, who is in difficulty.
The custom of redemption by a redeemer or next of kin was part of ancient Israel’s system of social security based on the extended family and the tribe. If a member of the extended family had to sell land, the next of kin would buy it back to restore the property to the family (Lev. 25:25). If one sold oneself to an alien, the next of kin had the right and duty to restore the damage done to the family or tribe by paying the purchase price and setting the slave free. If a person who had been wronged died, the restitution for the crime committed should be paid to the next of kin who acts on behalf of the whole family (Num. 5:8).
Boaz is immediately drawn to Ruth, her beauty and the modesty of her demeanor. Boaz first asked his harvesters about the strange young woman in his fields (v. 5). On learning that she had come from Moab with Naomi the widow of Elimelech, he welcomed her warmly as ‘my daughter’, and urged her to stay with other young women in his field and gather behind his reapers.
The reaping was performed by women while the assortment of sheaves was the duty of men-servants. The same division of harvest labor obtains in Syria still. Boaz not only granted to Ruth the full privilege of gleaning after his reapers, but provided for her personal comfort. Implies violence, tough, molest. Rape was a possibility. Women are the victims of physical assault and degradation by rape. Sensing her vulnerability as an alien and a widow, he offered her protection from indecent advances of the male harvesters.
And quench her thirst from the jars of water filled by his young men.
Boaz invited her to eat with him, Come hither or here, that is near to him at the meal. Some of the new grain, roasted on the spot, and fit for use after being rubbed in the hands - a favorite viand in the East. He gave her so much, that after satisfying her own wants, she had some (2:18) in reserve for her mother-in-law.
When Naomi saw the pile of barley that Ruth laid at her feet, her first reaction was to thank Yahweh that the owner of the field where Ruth had gleaned had taken notice of her. Boaz’s taking notice of her daughter-in-law meant to Naomi that Ruth was no longer a stranger or an alien.
When Ruth returns home to Naomi and reports to her the day’s events, Naomi sees the prospect for her daughter-in-law of a levirate marriage. Naomi would offer for sale a piece of land that belonged to her deceased husband, Elimelech. Boaz was a close relative of Elimelech, and Naomi felt that he might be willing to redeem the family property and marry Ruth, Elimelech’s daughter-in-law, the wife of the deceased son. In this way, the family name would be carried on in accordance with the ancient patriarchal duty. Naomi advises Ruth to continue gleaning in Boaz’ field, but it isn’t until the barley and wheat harvests are over that she instructs Ruth with the heart of her plan.
G-d’s kindness to the living and to the dead meant that somehow the interest of the dead continues with the living, and that the unresolved problem following the deaths of her husband and her two sons would find its resolution in the living matrix of succeeding generations of children’s children. Boaz himself was part of G-d’s kindness toward the dead as well as the living (Naomi and Ruth).
The Rabbis speak of power of prayer. They claim that Boaz was already 80 years old and had not yet been granted children. Ruth was now 40, and as long as she was married to Mahlon, she had never been granted children. The Rabbis said that both Boaz and Ruth were favored with a son only as a result of the blessings of the righteous elders.
One of our next kinsmen meant that she was not sure whether he was indeed next of kin or not. Ruth’s challenge to Boaz, you are next of kin (3:9), meant that she was hoping that he was in fact Naomi’s closest relative.
Near kinsmen but there may be another kinsman more closely related than him.
After the harvest feast Boaz went to lay down and fell asleep. Ruth’s act of lifting the cover over Boaz’s feet and covering herself with it was a request that she be taken under his protection as his wife. The phrase ‘spread you cloak’ is according to one translation marry me (Ezek. 16:8). Suddenly the man woke up and was startled, aware of the implicit danger in the presence of a woman at his feet. Could she be a prostitute looking for a partner? How would he protect his reputation? Ruth startles Boaz with her unexpected and uninvited presence, and out of fear, Boaz might have rashly pronounced a curse upon her. In her reply the woman used her own name for the first time. By giving her personal name first, she emphasized her dignity as a woman. By adding the expression your handmaid she showed a proper deference to Boaz as her benefactor. In the story of Ruth there is a distinction between the two Hebrew terms, female slave and household servant. Ruth hoped at first to be accepted as Boaz’s female slave, but now she called herself his household servant. Implication suggesting her eligibility to become his wife.
Skirt translated here is (kanaph), the word for the “corner” of the tallit where the tzitzit of his tallit had powerful consequences. It meant that Boaz had accepted Ruth under his authority. He had merely recognized his own legal responsibilities toward this young widow and had made the gesture that she covered by his integrity and by his determination to fulfill the Torah commandments, which his tzitzit represented. His responsibility to bring up children in the name of his kinsman, when Obed was born to Ruth, the people said, “There is a son born to Naomi”.
She had already drawn part of the mantle over her; and she asked him now to do it, that the act might become his own. 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.
Near kinsman appealed to Boaz’s sense of family solidarity, showing that her primary motivation was not self-gratification. Fear not, Boaz said, –reassuring her that she had nothing to fear, she had put herself under his care.
Boaz showed his respect for Ruth by calling her a virtuous woman (woman of worth). He assured her that he would honor her request by marring her and acting as next of kin to rescue Naomi and the family of Elimelech from extinction. Showing his consideration for Ruth by counseling her to remain where she was until the morning and showing his covenant loyalty by seeking to protect her person and name from the danger of going through the streets in the night. Concealed from public eye by the heap of corn, and protected by his good character, she could remain this night without fear.
scene. Boaz, the ten elders, and so and so the next of kin will make decisions for the women. The name Boaz, mentioned only twice in chapter 3, appears seven times in 4:1-12.
Gate – was the location of public assemblies, where agreements were witnesses and justice done, or left undone. People would gather around the public well at the city gate and praise the good works of virtuous men and women, where the Hebrew word for gate is translated assembly. They would seek or reject wisdom at the entrance of the city gates. 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.
Boaz offers the option of redeeming the land to Elimelech’s closest kinsman, who remains nameless. He is important only as legal obstacle to fulfillment of Boaz’s promise to Ruth. Witnesses were necessary in order to make the transaction legal.
Sat down here the ten elders who gathered at the gate at Boaz’s invitation were people of standing who maintained and upheld the Bethlehem community. Although there were others who witnessed the decision about to be made (all the people who were at the gate), it was the elders who made it legal.
At first he accepts the proposal. When he finds the deal includes marriage to Ruth, and therefore the property and the money expended would ultimately pass onto any sons born to Ruth, he states that he is unable to afford the proposition and will be forced to decline. Boaz takes over the right of redemption, being the next one in line. To validate this transaction, one drew off his shoe and gave it to the other, as was the practice in Israel at that time.
The presence of Naomi’s daughter in law, the widow of Elimelech’s deceased son Mahlon, made this more than a matter of the redemption of land. It meant rescuing the family of Elimelech’s from extinction by begetting a son from Mahlon’s widow. This son would have right to the parcel of land, so that the next of kin would have to return it to the son. This explains the next of kin’s change of mind, saying I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. This consequence would follow, either, first, from his having a son by Ruth, who, though heir to the property, would not bear his name; his name would be extinguished in that of her former husband; or, secondly, from its having to be subdivided among his other children, which he had probably by a previous marriage. This right, therefore, was renounced and assigned in favor of Boaz, in the way of whose marriage with Ruth the only existing obstacle was now removed.
Boaz offers the option of redeeming the land to Elimelech’s closest kinsman. At first he accepts the proposal. When he finds the deal includes marriage to Ruth, and therefore the property and the money expended would ultimately pass onto any sons born to Ruth, he states that he is unable to afford the proposition and will be forced to decline. Boaz takes over the right of redemption, being the next one in line. To validate this transaction, one drew off his shoe and gave it to the other, as was the practice in Israel at that time.
The shoe ceremony at the Bethlehem gate was like signing a document of transfer. The Narrator’s historical note explains a custom from former times, no longer practiced in his time. The purpose of the ceremony was to give legal status to a transfer of responsibility involving redeeming and exchanging. The food may symbolize power or possession, putting all things under their feet. The foot also symbolized territorial claims.
Records recovered from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi attest to a ceremony of transfer of land ownership in which the old owner would lift up his foot and place the new owner’s foot on the piece of land. Removal of shoes could symbolize surrender of power or authority.
The Levirate marriage custom, according to which the husband’s brother was required to marry his brother’s widow in order to give his deceased brother an heir. If the brother-in-law refuses to do his duty, the widow removes her brother-in-law’s shoe as a public humiliation of the man wh9o does not build up his brother’s house. This law is not relevant to Ruth, neither the next of kin nor Boaz was a brother of Ruth’s deceased husband Mahlon.
Where the kinsman refused to perform his duty to the family of his deceased relation, the widow was directed to pull off the shoe with some attendant circumstances of contemptuous disdain. But, as in this case, there was no refusal, the usual ignominy was spared; and the plucking off the shoe, the only ceremony observed, was a pledge of the transaction being completed.
Boaz – four facts about him:
1. He was Naomi’s kinsman on her husband’s side.
2. He was a prominent rich man, a landowner who employed a large group of laborers in the harvest, and who was well able to be of help to the two poor widows who had just arrived.
3. There is no explicit reference to his age, but he was older than the young men in his employment.
4. Kinsman means of the same clan. Boaz was of the family of Elimelech, same as Naomi’s late husband. The Hebrew term translated family designates a kinship group larger than the immediate family unit or father’s house and smaller than the clan or tribe. Membership in the extended family made Boaz a possible redeemer who could come to the aid of Naomi and her daughter-in-law. Thus the next of kin or redeemer is the one bearing the responsibility for rescuing or redeeming the relative, who is in difficulty.
The custom of redemption by a redeemer or next of kin was part of ancient Israel’s system of social security based on the extended family and the tribe. If a member of the extended family had to sell land, the next of kin would buy it back to restore the property to the family (Lev. 25:25). If one sold oneself to an alien, the next of kin had the right and duty to restore the damage done to the family or tribe by paying the purchase price and setting the slave free. If a person who had been wronged died, the restitution for the crime committed should be paid to the next of kin who acts on behalf of the whole family (Num. 5:8).
Boaz is immediately drawn to Ruth, her beauty and the modesty of her demeanor. Boaz first asked his harvesters about the strange young woman in his fields (v. 5). On learning that she had come from Moab with Naomi the widow of Elimelech, he welcomed her warmly as ‘my daughter’, and urged her to stay with other young women in his field and gather behind his reapers.
The reaping was performed by women while the assortment of sheaves was the duty of men-servants. The same division of harvest labor obtains in Syria still. Boaz not only granted to Ruth the full privilege of gleaning after his reapers, but provided for her personal comfort. Implies violence, tough, molest. Rape was a possibility. Women are the victims of physical assault and degradation by rape. Sensing her vulnerability as an alien and a widow, he offered her protection from indecent advances of the male harvesters.
And quench her thirst from the jars of water filled by his young men.
Boaz invited her to eat with him, Come hither or here, that is near to him at the meal. Some of the new grain, roasted on the spot, and fit for use after being rubbed in the hands - a favorite viand in the East. He gave her so much, that after satisfying her own wants, she had some (2:18) in reserve for her mother-in-law.
When Naomi saw the pile of barley that Ruth laid at her feet, her first reaction was to thank Yahweh that the owner of the field where Ruth had gleaned had taken notice of her. Boaz’s taking notice of her daughter-in-law meant to Naomi that Ruth was no longer a stranger or an alien.
When Ruth returns home to Naomi and reports to her the day’s events, Naomi sees the prospect for her daughter-in-law of a levirate marriage. Naomi would offer for sale a piece of land that belonged to her deceased husband, Elimelech. Boaz was a close relative of Elimelech, and Naomi felt that he might be willing to redeem the family property and marry Ruth, Elimelech’s daughter-in-law, the wife of the deceased son. In this way, the family name would be carried on in accordance with the ancient patriarchal duty. Naomi advises Ruth to continue gleaning in Boaz’ field, but it isn’t until the barley and wheat harvests are over that she instructs Ruth with the heart of her plan.
G-d’s kindness to the living and to the dead meant that somehow the interest of the dead continues with the living, and that the unresolved problem following the deaths of her husband and her two sons would find its resolution in the living matrix of succeeding generations of children’s children. Boaz himself was part of G-d’s kindness toward the dead as well as the living (Naomi and Ruth).
The Rabbis speak of power of prayer. They claim that Boaz was already 80 years old and had not yet been granted children. Ruth was now 40, and as long as she was married to Mahlon, she had never been granted children. The Rabbis said that both Boaz and Ruth were favored with a son only as a result of the blessings of the righteous elders.
One of our next kinsmen meant that she was not sure whether he was indeed next of kin or not. Ruth’s challenge to Boaz, you are next of kin (3:9), meant that she was hoping that he was in fact Naomi’s closest relative.
Near kinsmen but there may be another kinsman more closely related than him.
After the harvest feast Boaz went to lay down and fell asleep. Ruth’s act of lifting the cover over Boaz’s feet and covering herself with it was a request that she be taken under his protection as his wife. The phrase ‘spread you cloak’ is according to one translation marry me (Ezek. 16:8). Suddenly the man woke up and was startled, aware of the implicit danger in the presence of a woman at his feet. Could she be a prostitute looking for a partner? How would he protect his reputation? Ruth startles Boaz with her unexpected and uninvited presence, and out of fear, Boaz might have rashly pronounced a curse upon her. In her reply the woman used her own name for the first time. By giving her personal name first, she emphasized her dignity as a woman. By adding the expression your handmaid she showed a proper deference to Boaz as her benefactor. In the story of Ruth there is a distinction between the two Hebrew terms, female slave and household servant. Ruth hoped at first to be accepted as Boaz’s female slave, but now she called herself his household servant. Implication suggesting her eligibility to become his wife.
Skirt translated here is (kanaph), the word for the “corner” of the tallit where the tzitzit of his tallit had powerful consequences. It meant that Boaz had accepted Ruth under his authority. He had merely recognized his own legal responsibilities toward this young widow and had made the gesture that she covered by his integrity and by his determination to fulfill the Torah commandments, which his tzitzit represented. His responsibility to bring up children in the name of his kinsman, when Obed was born to Ruth, the people said, “There is a son born to Naomi”.
She had already drawn part of the mantle over her; and she asked him now to do it, that the act might become his own. 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.
Near kinsman appealed to Boaz’s sense of family solidarity, showing that her primary motivation was not self-gratification. Fear not, Boaz said, –reassuring her that she had nothing to fear, she had put herself under his care.
Boaz showed his respect for Ruth by calling her a virtuous woman (woman of worth). He assured her that he would honor her request by marring her and acting as next of kin to rescue Naomi and the family of Elimelech from extinction. Showing his consideration for Ruth by counseling her to remain where she was until the morning and showing his covenant loyalty by seeking to protect her person and name from the danger of going through the streets in the night. Concealed from public eye by the heap of corn, and protected by his good character, she could remain this night without fear.
scene. Boaz, the ten elders, and so and so the next of kin will make decisions for the women. The name Boaz, mentioned only twice in chapter 3, appears seven times in 4:1-12.
Gate – was the location of public assemblies, where agreements were witnesses and justice done, or left undone. People would gather around the public well at the city gate and praise the good works of virtuous men and women, where the Hebrew word for gate is translated assembly. They would seek or reject wisdom at the entrance of the city gates. 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.
Boaz offers the option of redeeming the land to Elimelech’s closest kinsman, who remains nameless. He is important only as legal obstacle to fulfillment of Boaz’s promise to Ruth. Witnesses were necessary in order to make the transaction legal.
Sat down here the ten elders who gathered at the gate at Boaz’s invitation were people of standing who maintained and upheld the Bethlehem community. Although there were others who witnessed the decision about to be made (all the people who were at the gate), it was the elders who made it legal.
At first he accepts the proposal. When he finds the deal includes marriage to Ruth, and therefore the property and the money expended would ultimately pass onto any sons born to Ruth, he states that he is unable to afford the proposition and will be forced to decline. Boaz takes over the right of redemption, being the next one in line. To validate this transaction, one drew off his shoe and gave it to the other, as was the practice in Israel at that time.
The presence of Naomi’s daughter in law, the widow of Elimelech’s deceased son Mahlon, made this more than a matter of the redemption of land. It meant rescuing the family of Elimelech’s from extinction by begetting a son from Mahlon’s widow. This son would have right to the parcel of land, so that the next of kin would have to return it to the son. This explains the next of kin’s change of mind, saying I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. This consequence would follow, either, first, from his having a son by Ruth, who, though heir to the property, would not bear his name; his name would be extinguished in that of her former husband; or, secondly, from its having to be subdivided among his other children, which he had probably by a previous marriage. This right, therefore, was renounced and assigned in favor of Boaz, in the way of whose marriage with Ruth the only existing obstacle was now removed.
Boaz offers the option of redeeming the land to Elimelech’s closest kinsman. At first he accepts the proposal. When he finds the deal includes marriage to Ruth, and therefore the property and the money expended would ultimately pass onto any sons born to Ruth, he states that he is unable to afford the proposition and will be forced to decline. Boaz takes over the right of redemption, being the next one in line. To validate this transaction, one drew off his shoe and gave it to the other, as was the practice in Israel at that time.
The shoe ceremony at the Bethlehem gate was like signing a document of transfer. The Narrator’s historical note explains a custom from former times, no longer practiced in his time. The purpose of the ceremony was to give legal status to a transfer of responsibility involving redeeming and exchanging. The food may symbolize power or possession, putting all things under their feet. The foot also symbolized territorial claims.
Records recovered from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi attest to a ceremony of transfer of land ownership in which the old owner would lift up his foot and place the new owner’s foot on the piece of land. Removal of shoes could symbolize surrender of power or authority.
The Levirate marriage custom, according to which the husband’s brother was required to marry his brother’s widow in order to give his deceased brother an heir. If the brother-in-law refuses to do his duty, the widow removes her brother-in-law’s shoe as a public humiliation of the man wh9o does not build up his brother’s house. This law is not relevant to Ruth, neither the next of kin nor Boaz was a brother of Ruth’s deceased husband Mahlon.
Where the kinsman refused to perform his duty to the family of his deceased relation, the widow was directed to pull off the shoe with some attendant circumstances of contemptuous disdain. But, as in this case, there was no refusal, the usual ignominy was spared; and the plucking off the shoe, the only ceremony observed, was a pledge of the transaction being completed.
Faithfulness of Ruth
[Ruth 1:16] And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
The word for to entreat also means misfortune or plague. Ruth is telling Naomi not to attempt to turn her away by enumerating her misfortunes to her, that she is determined to become a convert, no matter what the circumstances. Ruth’s life we read at the holiday of Shavuot. She was a Moabite princess who had been married to a Jewish man.
Ruth signified her decision to go or walk with Naomi, side by side sharing life together.
Lodge on the way, enjoying her friendship and to help Naomi in her search for a new security.
Your people, my people leaving her own people and native land and bind herself to Naomi’s people.
Your G-d, my G-d ready to make an absolute commitment to the G-d Naomi had taught her to love. Ruth is one of numerous other people in the Scriptures who declared her loyalty to Yahweh across cultural and religious lines.
There must have been something very beautiful in Naomi’s life thus to win the devotion and love of Ruth, first to herself and then to her G-d’ and it has bee well to keep her name, which means Pleasant, instead of substituting her suggestion of Mara.
Can this be Naomi? In the past she wore a cloak of fine wool, and now she is clothed in rags, and before her countenance was ruddy from abundance of food and drink, and now it is sickly from hunger. Naomi and Ruth were not in the best of positions. Naomi’s husband had lost his fortune in Moab, and she was nearly penniless except for some family land.
All the city was moved about them, the present condition of Naomi, a forlorn and desolate widow, presented so painful a contrast to the flourishing state of prosperity and domestic bliss in which she had been at her departure. Naomi asks that she not be called by a name reflecting “pleasantness,” but one that embodies her condition and attitude, Mara, which means bitterness. She stressed her bitterness of soul by using the Hebrew word for bitter three times. It is a very human form of anger, a complaint that life is not fair and is found often throughout the OT.
Naomi complained that Yahweh had dealt harshly with her. This expression is a translation of a Hebrew verb that means basically to answer. When the answer is harsh, the meaning may be to afflict. So when she cried to the L-rd for an answer at the time of the death of her husband, Yahweh answered her with the death of her two sons. Behind her complaints, would be the faith that Yahweh does not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted (Ps. 22:24). She also blamed G-d for bringing calamity on her. Completely wrapped up in her own suffering, she did not even mention her Moabite daughter-in-law. G-d’s answer to her cries was in the Moabite woman who had clung to her and sworn to walk by her side on her return to Bethlehem. Ruth would cause “Mara the bitter one” to become Naomi the lovely one again. Ruth would fill the void of emptiness in Naomi’s heart with fullness, embody G-d’s grace instead of harshness, and bring blessing in place of calamity and change her mourning into dancing (Ps. 30:11).
On the day that Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem was the very day that all the neighboring townspeople gathered together to celebrate the reaping of the Omer, a measure of barley that would be offered up as a sacrifice on the second day of Passover. The wife of Boaz died on that day, and all Israel assembled to pay their respects, and just then, Ruth entered with Naomi. The later rain (Deut. 11:14) had fallen in November, and the barley and wheat crops had been planted. The beginning of the barley harvest, which followed the Festival of Unleavened Bread in March or April, was now at hand.
The word for to entreat also means misfortune or plague. Ruth is telling Naomi not to attempt to turn her away by enumerating her misfortunes to her, that she is determined to become a convert, no matter what the circumstances. Ruth’s life we read at the holiday of Shavuot. She was a Moabite princess who had been married to a Jewish man.
Ruth signified her decision to go or walk with Naomi, side by side sharing life together.
Lodge on the way, enjoying her friendship and to help Naomi in her search for a new security.
Your people, my people leaving her own people and native land and bind herself to Naomi’s people.
Your G-d, my G-d ready to make an absolute commitment to the G-d Naomi had taught her to love. Ruth is one of numerous other people in the Scriptures who declared her loyalty to Yahweh across cultural and religious lines.
There must have been something very beautiful in Naomi’s life thus to win the devotion and love of Ruth, first to herself and then to her G-d’ and it has bee well to keep her name, which means Pleasant, instead of substituting her suggestion of Mara.
Can this be Naomi? In the past she wore a cloak of fine wool, and now she is clothed in rags, and before her countenance was ruddy from abundance of food and drink, and now it is sickly from hunger. Naomi and Ruth were not in the best of positions. Naomi’s husband had lost his fortune in Moab, and she was nearly penniless except for some family land.
All the city was moved about them, the present condition of Naomi, a forlorn and desolate widow, presented so painful a contrast to the flourishing state of prosperity and domestic bliss in which she had been at her departure. Naomi asks that she not be called by a name reflecting “pleasantness,” but one that embodies her condition and attitude, Mara, which means bitterness. She stressed her bitterness of soul by using the Hebrew word for bitter three times. It is a very human form of anger, a complaint that life is not fair and is found often throughout the OT.
Naomi complained that Yahweh had dealt harshly with her. This expression is a translation of a Hebrew verb that means basically to answer. When the answer is harsh, the meaning may be to afflict. So when she cried to the L-rd for an answer at the time of the death of her husband, Yahweh answered her with the death of her two sons. Behind her complaints, would be the faith that Yahweh does not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted (Ps. 22:24). She also blamed G-d for bringing calamity on her. Completely wrapped up in her own suffering, she did not even mention her Moabite daughter-in-law. G-d’s answer to her cries was in the Moabite woman who had clung to her and sworn to walk by her side on her return to Bethlehem. Ruth would cause “Mara the bitter one” to become Naomi the lovely one again. Ruth would fill the void of emptiness in Naomi’s heart with fullness, embody G-d’s grace instead of harshness, and bring blessing in place of calamity and change her mourning into dancing (Ps. 30:11).
On the day that Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem was the very day that all the neighboring townspeople gathered together to celebrate the reaping of the Omer, a measure of barley that would be offered up as a sacrifice on the second day of Passover. The wife of Boaz died on that day, and all Israel assembled to pay their respects, and just then, Ruth entered with Naomi. The later rain (Deut. 11:14) had fallen in November, and the barley and wheat crops had been planted. The beginning of the barley harvest, which followed the Festival of Unleavened Bread in March or April, was now at hand.
Venture Home
[Ruth 1:6] Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.
When the famine in Judah finally ended, and she and her daughters-in-law “went forth out of the place”. The Rabbis speak of her departure in the same way they spoke of Jacob’s when he left Canaan at his mother’s bidding. The good news for Naomi was that Yahweh the L-rd of the harvest had visited his people in Bethlehem once again and it was time to return.
To rise up out of a condition of sorrow, and discouragement. Naomi’s response to the disasters was not passive acceptance, but a resolute initiative of faith. Naomi was beginning her own exodus journey from death in Moab to life in Bethlehem. Naomi tried to tell her daughter-in-laws to return to their mothers-in-laws home. Naomi’s argument it that she is too old to remarry. Even if she did and even if she bore sons, the women would have to wait for them to grow up. They would, in effect, cheat themselves of the opportunity to remarry. The Law stated a woman was not to be married to a man without her consent. This was the Law for an adult woman, a woman over 12 years of age. The Rabbis frowned on arranging marriages for girls under twelve, although they could not entirely forbid it since it was sanctioned by the Torah tradition. In some cases they required that the woman reaffirm the marriage when she reached adulthood. Jewish tradition celebrates two famous women who found themselves in situations where the standard procedure of marriage simply had not worked out for them; these two are Tamar and Ruth. As a result, they decided to take matters into their own hands and in bold ways rearranged their lives within a fundamentally patriarchal marriage system.
Return to mother’s house – then they could take a first step toward remarriage. Eastern countries women occupy apartments separate from those of men, and daughters are most frequently in those of their mother.
Deal kindly literally means to practice steadfast love and loyalty. Naomi praised her two Moabite daughters-in-law for their kindness towards her two sons even after their death, and towards her. The two Moabite women had learned about Yahweh’s steadfast love and the human response of covenant loyalty from their years as members of a family that knew of Yahweh’s steadfast love and were kind to one another. She hopes that even after they had returned to their people, Yahweh would show them steadfast love and help them to find security in the house of their husbands.
Naomi was determined to return to Bethlehem by herself. Three times she urged her daughter-in-laws to go back, or turn back. To return to Bethlehem with her would mean, for them, hardship, poverty, and no chance of marrying younger brothers of their husbands, according to the custom of levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5-6). She felt that if Yahweh’s hand had turned against her, it could turn against them too. That Naomi should dissuade her daughters-in-law so strongly from accompanying her to the land of Israel may appear strange. But it was the wisest and most prudent course for her to adopt:
First, because they might be influenced by hopes which could not be realized;
Second, because they might be led, under temporary excitement, to take a step they might afterwards regret; and,
Third, because the sincerity and strength of their conversion to the true religion, which she had taught them, would be thoroughly tested.
Orpah returns to her own family, her old ways. The Rabbis teach that she was stiff necked, “she turned her back on her mother-in-law”; Orpah’s name contains within it the letters of the word
Ha-oref, which means “the nape of the neck.” Ruth, on the other hand, understood the true underlying meaning of her mother-in-law’s words and wish. The clue to her perceptiveness, her ability to perceive Truth, is found in her name; ra’athah means “considered well,” or literally “saw” – the meaning of her mother-in-law’s words.
The decisions of Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth are all about returning. The double movement of returning dominates this episode of the story: for Orpah it was back to Moab. Naomi, with Ruth at her side, went back to Bethlehem.
The Narrator does not condemn Orpah for her decision. We do not know what she base her decision on: It might have meant a going back to the old ways of Moab, to the traditional culture and religion, or to return as an opportunity for her to bring to her people a new vision of Yahweh’s steadfast love and of human relations which she had seen as a member of this family that worshipped Yahweh.
Ruth’s decision is the direct opposite of Orpah’s. She clung to her. The word cling signifies the formation of a new unity binding both sides together. When Ruth stepped forward to cling to Naomi, she bound the lives of these two vulnerable widows together in a new solidarity. Her decision is remarkable and meant a complete break with her past.
Naomi also reminded her daughters-in-law that in returning to Moab they would, besides rejoining their own people, also go back to their idols. Marriage into Moabite families and residence among people who follow Moabite folk religions would make it difficult for them to remember the First Commandment, which they would have learned from Naomi.
When the famine in Judah finally ended, and she and her daughters-in-law “went forth out of the place”. The Rabbis speak of her departure in the same way they spoke of Jacob’s when he left Canaan at his mother’s bidding. The good news for Naomi was that Yahweh the L-rd of the harvest had visited his people in Bethlehem once again and it was time to return.
To rise up out of a condition of sorrow, and discouragement. Naomi’s response to the disasters was not passive acceptance, but a resolute initiative of faith. Naomi was beginning her own exodus journey from death in Moab to life in Bethlehem. Naomi tried to tell her daughter-in-laws to return to their mothers-in-laws home. Naomi’s argument it that she is too old to remarry. Even if she did and even if she bore sons, the women would have to wait for them to grow up. They would, in effect, cheat themselves of the opportunity to remarry. The Law stated a woman was not to be married to a man without her consent. This was the Law for an adult woman, a woman over 12 years of age. The Rabbis frowned on arranging marriages for girls under twelve, although they could not entirely forbid it since it was sanctioned by the Torah tradition. In some cases they required that the woman reaffirm the marriage when she reached adulthood. Jewish tradition celebrates two famous women who found themselves in situations where the standard procedure of marriage simply had not worked out for them; these two are Tamar and Ruth. As a result, they decided to take matters into their own hands and in bold ways rearranged their lives within a fundamentally patriarchal marriage system.
Return to mother’s house – then they could take a first step toward remarriage. Eastern countries women occupy apartments separate from those of men, and daughters are most frequently in those of their mother.
Deal kindly literally means to practice steadfast love and loyalty. Naomi praised her two Moabite daughters-in-law for their kindness towards her two sons even after their death, and towards her. The two Moabite women had learned about Yahweh’s steadfast love and the human response of covenant loyalty from their years as members of a family that knew of Yahweh’s steadfast love and were kind to one another. She hopes that even after they had returned to their people, Yahweh would show them steadfast love and help them to find security in the house of their husbands.
Naomi was determined to return to Bethlehem by herself. Three times she urged her daughter-in-laws to go back, or turn back. To return to Bethlehem with her would mean, for them, hardship, poverty, and no chance of marrying younger brothers of their husbands, according to the custom of levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5-6). She felt that if Yahweh’s hand had turned against her, it could turn against them too. That Naomi should dissuade her daughters-in-law so strongly from accompanying her to the land of Israel may appear strange. But it was the wisest and most prudent course for her to adopt:
First, because they might be influenced by hopes which could not be realized;
Second, because they might be led, under temporary excitement, to take a step they might afterwards regret; and,
Third, because the sincerity and strength of their conversion to the true religion, which she had taught them, would be thoroughly tested.
Orpah returns to her own family, her old ways. The Rabbis teach that she was stiff necked, “she turned her back on her mother-in-law”; Orpah’s name contains within it the letters of the word
Ha-oref, which means “the nape of the neck.” Ruth, on the other hand, understood the true underlying meaning of her mother-in-law’s words and wish. The clue to her perceptiveness, her ability to perceive Truth, is found in her name; ra’athah means “considered well,” or literally “saw” – the meaning of her mother-in-law’s words.
The decisions of Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth are all about returning. The double movement of returning dominates this episode of the story: for Orpah it was back to Moab. Naomi, with Ruth at her side, went back to Bethlehem.
The Narrator does not condemn Orpah for her decision. We do not know what she base her decision on: It might have meant a going back to the old ways of Moab, to the traditional culture and religion, or to return as an opportunity for her to bring to her people a new vision of Yahweh’s steadfast love and of human relations which she had seen as a member of this family that worshipped Yahweh.
Ruth’s decision is the direct opposite of Orpah’s. She clung to her. The word cling signifies the formation of a new unity binding both sides together. When Ruth stepped forward to cling to Naomi, she bound the lives of these two vulnerable widows together in a new solidarity. Her decision is remarkable and meant a complete break with her past.
Naomi also reminded her daughters-in-law that in returning to Moab they would, besides rejoining their own people, also go back to their idols. Marriage into Moabite families and residence among people who follow Moabite folk religions would make it difficult for them to remember the First Commandment, which they would have learned from Naomi.
World of Chaos
[Ruth 1:2] And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.
Elimelech – his name highlights the pride that led to his ultimate punishment: “Eli” “to me,” “melech” “the kingship,” that is “to me shall the kingship come!” This man, acknowledged by the Rabbis as a notable leader in the tribe of Judah, “one of the sustainers of the generation,” abandoned his fellows in a time of despair. “Now all of Israel will come knocking at my door for help.” So he ran from them; his sons accompanied him to Moab, the fertile plateau on the far side of the Dead Sea. There, Machlon was “blotted out” “nimchu” and Chilion was destroyed.
Naomi as the survivor of a double disaster: a famine in Judah that made her family refugees among a people not their own, and the death in Moab of her husband and two sons. In patriarchal society, a widowed and childless woman was automatically marginalized by society.
The family of Elimelech took the backsliding step of going down into the land of Moab in search of food and stayed there. Trouble upon trouble followed this downward step.
Elimelech and his family are identified as ‘Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah”. The significance of Ephrathah in the story of Ruth becomes clear when we note that the only other occurrence of the phrase “Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah” in the OT is the description of David as the “son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah” (1 Sam. 17:12).
His sons married Moabitic women and they died too.
The story of Ruth is specific as to time: the chaotic and violent period of the judges, that is, after the death of Joshua, the successor to Moses, and before the appearance of Samuel, who anointed David as the future king of Israel.
In the days when the judges ruled …is this: when violence against women, vengeance, idolatry, death, and disintegration were widespread as in the days of the judges, G-d’s hidden hand was at work preparing a future for the survivor, her family, and her people.
Ten years later this Narrator describes Naomi as neither wife, nor mother, but simply the woman, alone and vulnerable in an alien world. She was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away…left all alone.
The phrase was left presents Naomi as the last remaining remnant of Elimelech’s family. The Hebrew verb translated left is the root of the noun translated remnant. Naomi was like the widow who lamented that the death of her son would quench my one remaining ember, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth (2 Sam. 14:7). Naomi was not only the sole survivor of her family, she was also a sign of hope that the remnant who will return. She was one of the weak…low and despised in the world (1 Cor. 1:27-28) chosen by G-d to be a part of the events and relationships which will shape history.
To rise up out of a condition of sorrow, and discouragement. Naomi’s response to the disasters was not passive acceptance, but a resolute initiative of faith. Naomi was beginning her own exodus journey from death in Moab to life in Bethlehem.
Elimelech – his name highlights the pride that led to his ultimate punishment: “Eli” “to me,” “melech” “the kingship,” that is “to me shall the kingship come!” This man, acknowledged by the Rabbis as a notable leader in the tribe of Judah, “one of the sustainers of the generation,” abandoned his fellows in a time of despair. “Now all of Israel will come knocking at my door for help.” So he ran from them; his sons accompanied him to Moab, the fertile plateau on the far side of the Dead Sea. There, Machlon was “blotted out” “nimchu” and Chilion was destroyed.
Naomi as the survivor of a double disaster: a famine in Judah that made her family refugees among a people not their own, and the death in Moab of her husband and two sons. In patriarchal society, a widowed and childless woman was automatically marginalized by society.
The family of Elimelech took the backsliding step of going down into the land of Moab in search of food and stayed there. Trouble upon trouble followed this downward step.
Elimelech and his family are identified as ‘Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah”. The significance of Ephrathah in the story of Ruth becomes clear when we note that the only other occurrence of the phrase “Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah” in the OT is the description of David as the “son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah” (1 Sam. 17:12).
His sons married Moabitic women and they died too.
The story of Ruth is specific as to time: the chaotic and violent period of the judges, that is, after the death of Joshua, the successor to Moses, and before the appearance of Samuel, who anointed David as the future king of Israel.
In the days when the judges ruled …is this: when violence against women, vengeance, idolatry, death, and disintegration were widespread as in the days of the judges, G-d’s hidden hand was at work preparing a future for the survivor, her family, and her people.
Ten years later this Narrator describes Naomi as neither wife, nor mother, but simply the woman, alone and vulnerable in an alien world. She was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away…left all alone.
The phrase was left presents Naomi as the last remaining remnant of Elimelech’s family. The Hebrew verb translated left is the root of the noun translated remnant. Naomi was like the widow who lamented that the death of her son would quench my one remaining ember, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth (2 Sam. 14:7). Naomi was not only the sole survivor of her family, she was also a sign of hope that the remnant who will return. She was one of the weak…low and despised in the world (1 Cor. 1:27-28) chosen by G-d to be a part of the events and relationships which will shape history.
To rise up out of a condition of sorrow, and discouragement. Naomi’s response to the disasters was not passive acceptance, but a resolute initiative of faith. Naomi was beginning her own exodus journey from death in Moab to life in Bethlehem.
Introduction to Ruth
The word “Ruth” means friend or companion. This happen during the Feast of Pentecost (Harvest). The author is usually attributed to Samuel. It covers approximately 11 years during the time of the Judges.
The key words are:
Kinsman used 14 times.
Redeem used 9 times.
Great of favored used 3 times.
There were two books in the Bible bear the name of women:
Ruth, a Gentile who married a Jew.
Esther (Hadassah), a Jewess who married a Gentile.
Boaz was the son of Rayhab, Matthew 1:5. The theme of the book of Ruth is that a Gentile bride forsook her heathen ways and became a Jewish worshipper of Jehovah with full benefits, and married into a family that produce the Messiah, 2:12. There were 13 major famines in the Old Covenant. Famines came as judgments when G-d’s people were worshiping idols. When Ruth laid at the feet of Boaz, she was making a kinsman request (marriage proposal.) The kinsman redeemer was called Goel, which meant closes relative. Job 19:25 states G-d is referred to as a Goel redeemer. There were seven basic steps to the kinsman redemption: (chapter. 4)
Two plus witness of the transaction.
Agree which man was to be kinsman redeemer.
One giving up his right as redeemer and passing it to another.
Redemption of the inheritance.
Revelation to bring up the seed to the dead husband.
Confession of the witness of seeing it all happen.
Blessing on married couples.
The purpose of the book was historical document on the linage of David being form.
This book is read by the Jews during the Feast of Harvest.
The Naomi family means:
Husband - Elimelech means my G-d is king.
Wife - Naomi means sweet or pleasant
Son - Mahlon means sick - Ruth’s first husband.
Son - Chlon means consumption - Orpan’s husband.
Ruth’s sister-in-law - Orpah means stiff neck.
Seven basic things we know about the Moabites:
It was against G-d’s Law to go to Moab.
The Moabites were descendants of Lot.
They worshipped the idol Moab, (1 Kg. 11:7, 33) and sacrificed children.
Because Moab was cursed G-d would not permit a Moabite to enter His congregation until the 10th generation, Deut. 2:9-11.
Moses was buried in Moab, Deut. 34.
The Moabites became David’s servants, 2 Sam. 8:2.
Moab will be in the fulfillment of future prophecy as modern day Jordan.
Ancient Moab was 50 miles from Bethlehem.
Several principles seen in this book:
The weak became weaker away from G-d’s people
We can return after a fall and even become stronger.
Though Naomi returned from a cursed place, her Spirit was affected.
The number of witnesses by Law for the basic transaction was two, but he had ten which was common. Note at the burial and resurrection of Y’Shua there were 12 witnesses which was six times what was needed. Six is the number of man and some see this as a witness to mankind. Ruth is the faithful one to her mother-in-law. The word in Greek for favor is the same word for great. In a Jewish wedding the man put his prayer shawl over the bride to show that he was her covering. Boaz put his quilt over Ruth when she laid at his feet.
Halitazah refused the marriage shoe, he was not rich enough to redeem old husbands land or he was too old and had many wives already. Once he makes that decision he can never change his mind. Ruth would never marry him then, nor could she marry a priest.
The key words are:
Kinsman used 14 times.
Redeem used 9 times.
Great of favored used 3 times.
There were two books in the Bible bear the name of women:
Ruth, a Gentile who married a Jew.
Esther (Hadassah), a Jewess who married a Gentile.
Boaz was the son of Rayhab, Matthew 1:5. The theme of the book of Ruth is that a Gentile bride forsook her heathen ways and became a Jewish worshipper of Jehovah with full benefits, and married into a family that produce the Messiah, 2:12. There were 13 major famines in the Old Covenant. Famines came as judgments when G-d’s people were worshiping idols. When Ruth laid at the feet of Boaz, she was making a kinsman request (marriage proposal.) The kinsman redeemer was called Goel, which meant closes relative. Job 19:25 states G-d is referred to as a Goel redeemer. There were seven basic steps to the kinsman redemption: (chapter. 4)
Two plus witness of the transaction.
Agree which man was to be kinsman redeemer.
One giving up his right as redeemer and passing it to another.
Redemption of the inheritance.
Revelation to bring up the seed to the dead husband.
Confession of the witness of seeing it all happen.
Blessing on married couples.
The purpose of the book was historical document on the linage of David being form.
This book is read by the Jews during the Feast of Harvest.
The Naomi family means:
Husband - Elimelech means my G-d is king.
Wife - Naomi means sweet or pleasant
Son - Mahlon means sick - Ruth’s first husband.
Son - Chlon means consumption - Orpan’s husband.
Ruth’s sister-in-law - Orpah means stiff neck.
Seven basic things we know about the Moabites:
It was against G-d’s Law to go to Moab.
The Moabites were descendants of Lot.
They worshipped the idol Moab, (1 Kg. 11:7, 33) and sacrificed children.
Because Moab was cursed G-d would not permit a Moabite to enter His congregation until the 10th generation, Deut. 2:9-11.
Moses was buried in Moab, Deut. 34.
The Moabites became David’s servants, 2 Sam. 8:2.
Moab will be in the fulfillment of future prophecy as modern day Jordan.
Ancient Moab was 50 miles from Bethlehem.
Several principles seen in this book:
The weak became weaker away from G-d’s people
We can return after a fall and even become stronger.
Though Naomi returned from a cursed place, her Spirit was affected.
The number of witnesses by Law for the basic transaction was two, but he had ten which was common. Note at the burial and resurrection of Y’Shua there were 12 witnesses which was six times what was needed. Six is the number of man and some see this as a witness to mankind. Ruth is the faithful one to her mother-in-law. The word in Greek for favor is the same word for great. In a Jewish wedding the man put his prayer shawl over the bride to show that he was her covering. Boaz put his quilt over Ruth when she laid at his feet.
Halitazah refused the marriage shoe, he was not rich enough to redeem old husbands land or he was too old and had many wives already. Once he makes that decision he can never change his mind. Ruth would never marry him then, nor could she marry a priest.
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