The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Boaz Meets Ruth
Ruth 2:1–23 — Boaz Meets Ruth. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a prominent man of noble character from the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·lə·nā·‘o·mî mə·yud·då̄ʿ lə·’î·šāh gib·bō·wr ’îš ḥa·yil mim·miš·pa·ḥaṯ ’ĕ·lî·me·leḵ ū·šə·mōw bō·‘az
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-to-Naomi [there was] a-known-one belonging-to-her-husband, a-mighty-man of-valour, from-the-clan of-Elimelech — and-his-name Boaz.
Where the English smooths the original
a mighty man of wealth ] a wealthy man , 1 Samuel 9:1 , 2 Kings 15:20 ; sometimes the phrase means a valiant man (marg.) Jdg 6:12 ; Jdg 11:1 ; in Ruth 3:11 the word for wealth has a moral sense.Cambridge's last clause is the quiet one: the noun that here means substance is, on his own report, used in a moral sense at Ruth 3:11.
generally means the brave man of war ( Judges 6:12 ; Judges 11:1 , etc.); but here it signifies a man of property.
The idea the writer seems to be that the friend of the widow's husband was a strong and substantial yeoman
2And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the fields and glean heads of grain after someone in whose sight I may find favor.” “Go ahead, my daughter,” Naomi replied.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
rūṯ ham·mō·w·’ă·ḇî·yāh ’el- wat·tō·mer nā·‘o·mî nā ’ê·lə·ḵāh- haś·śā·ḏeh wa·ʾă·la·qoṭ·ṭå̄h ḇa·šib·bo·līm ’a·ḥar ’ă·šer bə·‘ê·nāw ’em·ṣā- ḥên lə·ḵî ḇit·tî wat·tō·mer lāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Ruth the-Moabitess unto Naomi: “Let-me-go, pray, into-the-field, and-let-me-glean among-the-ears after him-in-whose eyes I-shall-find favour.” And-she-said to-her: “Go, my-daughter.”
Where the English smooths the original
But liberty to glean behind the reapers [Ru 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.JFB draws the line the narrative depends on: gleaning was a right; gleaning close behind the reapers was not.
Perhaps she did not know that poor strangers had a right to glean as well as the poor of Israel; or rather, out of her great modesty, she would not claim it as a right, but as a favour, which she would humbly and thankfully acknowledge.
Her humility declares her great love for her mother in law, for she spared no hardship to get both their livings.
3So Ruth departed and went out into the field and gleaned after the harvesters. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tê·leḵ wat·tā·ḇō·w baś·śā·ḏeh wat·tə·laq·qêṭ ’a·ḥă·rê haq·qō·ṣə·rîm way·yi·qer miq·re·hā ḥel·qaṯ haś·śā·ḏeh lə·ḇō·‘az ’ă·šer mim·miš·pa·ḥaṯ ’ĕ·lî·me·leḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-went and-she-came and-she-gleaned in-the-field after the-reapers; and-her-chance chanced [upon] the-portion of-the-field belonging-to-Boaz, who [was] from-the-clan of-Elimelech.
Where the English smooths the original
A chance in outward seeming, yet a clear shaping of her course by unseen hands. Her steps were divinely guided to a certain field, that God’s good purposes should be worked out.
and chance led her to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, a relation of Elimelech, without her knowing the owner of the field, or being at all aware of his connection with Elimelech.K&D's stress on Ruth's ignorance is important: the reader knows v. 1, and she does not.
Throughout the story the writer intends us to share his strong belief in Providence, over-ruling unpremeditated actions and words
God wisely orders what seem to us small events; and those that appear altogether uncertain, still are directed to serve his own glory, and the good of his people.
4Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The LORD be with you.” “The LORD bless you,” they replied.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hin·nêh- ḇō·‘az bā mib·bêṯ le·ḥem way·yō·mer laq·qō·wṣ·rîm Yah·weh ‘im·mā·ḵem Yah·weh yə·ḇā·reḵ·ḵā way·yō·mə·rū lōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-behold — Boaz coming from Beth-lehem; and-he-said to-the-reapers: “YHWH [be] with-you.” And-they-said to-him: “May-YHWH bless-thee.”
Where the English smooths the original
Such was the piety of ancient times, that it manifested itself even in men’s civil conversation and worldly transactions
A religious spirit governs the relations between employer and employed on this estate.
They expressed and professed their piety, even in their civil conversation and worldly transactions; which now so many are ashamed of, and call it hypocrisy or vain ostentation thus to do.Poole is arguing with his own century as much as expounding the verse; the observation still lands on the text.
5And Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bō·‘az way·yō·mer lə·na·‘ă·rōw han·niṣ·ṣāḇ ‘al- haq·qō·wṣ·rîm lə·mî han·na·‘ă·rāh haz·zōṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Boaz to-his-young-man, the-one-stationed over the-reapers: “To-whom [belongs] this young-woman?”
Where the English smooths the original
6The foreman answered, “She is the Moabitess who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
han·na·‘ar han·niṣ·ṣāḇ ‘al- haq·qō·wṣ·rîm way·yō·mar way·ya·‘an hî mō·w·’ă·ḇî·yāh na·‘ă·rāh haš·šā·ḇāh ‘im- nā·‘o·mî miś·śə·ḏêh mō·w·’āḇ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-answered the-young-man, the-one-stationed over the-reapers, and-said: “A-Moabite young-woman [is] she, the-one-returned with Naomi from-the-fields-of Moab.”
Where the English smooths the original
She is the daughter-in-law of Naomi; and he adds that her behaviour has been praiseworthy, for she asked leave before beginning to glean, and she has worked hard all day, save for a short interval of rest.
That came with Naomi when she came back; for otherwise, as Ruth did not go from thence, so she could not properly be said to come back.
Note the Zeugmatic use of the word returned as applied here, as well as in Ruth 1:22 , not only to Naomi, but also to Ruth.
7She has said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the harvesters.’ So she came out and has continued from morning until now, except that she rested a short time in the shelter.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tō·mer nā ’ă·la·qo·ṭāh- wə·’ā·sap̄·tî ḇā·‘o·mā·rîm ’a·ḥă·rê haq·qō·wṣ·rîm wat·tā·ḇō·w wat·ta·‘ă·mō·wḏ mê·’āz hab·bō·qer wə·‘aḏ- ‘at·tāh zeh šiḇ·tāh mə·‘āṭ hab·ba·yiṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-said: “Let-me-glean, pray, and-I-will-gather among-the-sheaves after the-reapers.” And-she-came, and-she-has-stood from-then, the-morning, and-until now — this her-sitting the-house a-little.
Where the English smooths the original
It is doubtful, however, whether the words can bear this sense; the text is probably corrupt.Cambridge is the most candid witness we have on this clause; his verdict is a textual judgement, not an interpretation, and we let it stand unresolved.
In the little house or tent, which was set up in the fields at these times, and was necessary in those hot countries, where the labourers might retire for a little repose or repast. Being weary with her continued labours, she comes hither to take a little rest.
The reference, however, is evidently to a temporary but, shed, tent, or booth erected in the harvest-field for the siesta of the workers, and the accommodation of the master, when he was visiting by day, or exercising supervision by night.
8Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Do not go and glean in another field, and do not go away from this place, but stay here close to my servant girls.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bō·‘az way·yō·mer ’el- rūṯ hă·lō·w šā·ma·‘at bit·tî ’al- tê·lə·ḵî lil·qōṭ ’a·ḥêr bə·śā·ḏeh wə·ḡam lō ṯa·‘ă·ḇū·rî miz·zeh wə·ḵōh ṯiḏ·bā·qîn ‘im- na·‘ă·rō·ṯāy
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Boaz unto Ruth: “Hast-thou-not-heard, my-daughter? Do-not go to-glean in-another field, and-also do-not pass-on from-this[-place]; and-thus thou-shalt-cleave with my-young-women.”
Where the English smooths the original
Abide her fast by my maidens. —Literally, cleave to ( Genesis 2:24 ). The true courtesy of Boaz’s character shows itself in the mention of the maidens.
With fatherly kindness, therefore, he said to her ( Ruth 2:8 , Ruth 2:9 ), "Dost thou hear, my daughter? (i.e., 'thou hearest, dost thou not?' interrogatio blande affirmat;) go not to reap in another field, and go not away from here, and keep so to my maidens
The grammatical forms of the verbs "go hence" and "abide," are unique and Chaldaic. They are supposed to indicate the dialect used at Bethlehem in the time of Boaz.Barnes reports a nineteenth-century explanation of these forms as an Aramaising local dialect; it is a conjecture of his era about dating and provenance, not a settled result, and we flag it as such.
And let us, in the kindness of Boaz to Ruth, note the kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ to poor sinners.Henry's closing line is the classic devotional move on this chapter; note that he offers it as analogy, not as a claim that the text predicts Christ.
9Let your eyes be on the field they are harvesting, and follow along after these girls. Indeed, I have ordered the young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
‘ê·na·yiḵ ’ă·šer- baś·śā·ḏeh yiq·ṣō·rūn wə·hå̄·laḵ·ti ’a·ḥă·rê·hen hă·lō·w ṣiw·wî·ṯî ’eṯ- han·nə·‘ā·rîm lə·ḇil·tî nā·ḡə·‘êḵ wə·ṣā·miṯ wə·hā·laḵt ’el- wə·šā·ṯîṯ mê·’ă·šer hak·kê·lîm han·nə·‘ā·rîm yiš·’ă·ḇūn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Thine-eyes [be] upon the-field which they-reap, and-thou-shalt-go after-them. Have-I-not commanded the-young-men not to-touch-thee? And-when-thou-art-thirsty, then-go to the-vessels and-drink from-what the-young-men draw.
Where the English smooths the original
That they shall not touch thee, so as to offer any incivility or injury to thee. Touching is oft taken for hurting, Genesis 26:11
A fine euphemistic injunction; that was best obeyed, however, when most literally construed.
after them ] i.e. the maidens Ruth 2:8 , who followed the reapers and did the binding.
10At this, she fell on her face, bowing low to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, even though I am a foreigner?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tip·pōl ‘al- pā·ne·hā wat·tiš·ta·ḥū ’ā·rə·ṣāh wat·tō·mer ’ê·lāw mad·dū·a‘ mā·ṣā·ṯî ḥên bə·‘ê·ne·ḵā lə·hak·kî·rê·nî wəʾ·ʾå̄·nō·ḵī nā·ḵə·rî·yāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-fell upon her-face and-prostrated-herself to-the-ground; and-she-said unto-him: “Why have-I-found favour in-thine-eyes, to-take-notice-of-me — and-I a-foreigner?”
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The Hebr. has a subtle play on the two words take knowledge of me and stranger ; the roots are distinct, but they sound alike.Cambridge is careful where enthusiasts are not: the two roots are distinct. The play is aural, and that is enough.
Why have I found favour in thine eyes, that thou regardest me, who am only a stranger?
That thou shouldest take knowledge of me — That is, shouldest so much as notice me, and especially show me any respect or kindness.
11Boaz 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.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bō·‘az way·ya·‘an way·yō·mer lāh hug·gêḏ hug·gaḏ lî kōl ’ă·šer- ‘ā·śîṯ ’eṯ- ḥă·mō·w·ṯêḵ ’a·ḥă·rê mō·wṯ ’î·šêḵ wat·ta·‘az·ḇî ʾå̄·ḇīḵ wə·’im·mêḵ wə·’e·reṣ mō·w·laḏ·têḵ wat·tê·lə·ḵî ’el- ‘am ’ă·šer lō- yā·ḏa·‘at tə·mō·wl šil·šō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-answered Boaz and-said to-her: “Telling it-has-been-told to-me, all that thou-hast-done with thy-mother-in-law after the-death of-thy-husband — and-thou-didst-forsake thy-father and-thy-mother and-the-land of-thy-birth, and-thou-camest unto a-people whom thou-knewest-not yesterday-and-the-day-before.”
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that thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and thy kindred, and hast come to a people that thou knewest not heretofore" (hast therefore done what God commanded Abraham to do, Genesis 12:1
The expression rendered "fully showed" is a fine specimen of a very antique idiom, showed-showed
Ruth’s uncommon devotion, which induced her to leave her native land and the natural guardians of her widowhood, is one of the main features of the story.
12May the LORD repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh yə·šal·lêm pā·‘o·lêḵ ū·ṯə·hî šə·lê·māh maś·kur·têḵ mê·‘im Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl ta·ḥaṯ- ’ă·šer- kə·nā·p̄āw bāṯ la·ḥă·sō·wṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
May-YHWH repay thy-deed, and-may-thy-wages be whole from-with YHWH, God of-Israel, under whose wings thou-hast-come to-take-refuge.
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The similarity of expression here to Genesis 15:1 , and in Ruth 2:11 to Genesis 12:1 , makes it probable that Boaz had the case of Abraham in his mind.
The prayer was answered through the agency of him who uttered it—a fine touch, as Bertholet points out.Cambridge credits the observation to Bertholet; it is the single sharpest line any of our sources writes on this chapter.
Signifying, that she would never lack anything, if she put her trust in God, and lived under his protection.
He sees Ruth cowering trustfully under the outstretched wings of Him who is "good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all his works" in all lands
13“My lord,” she said, “may I continue to find favor in your eyes, for you have comforted and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ă·ḏō·nî wat·tō·mer ’em·ṣā- ḥên bə·‘ê·ne·ḵā kî ni·ḥam·tā·nî wə·ḵî ḏib·bar·tā lêḇ ‘al- šip̄·ḥā·ṯe·ḵā wə·’ā·nō·ḵî ’eh·yeh lō kə·’a·ḥaṯ šip̄·ḥō·ṯe·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-said: “May-I-find favour in-thine-eyes, my-lord, for thou-hast-comforted-me and-for thou-hast-spoken upon-the-heart of-thy-maidservant — and-I, I-am-not like-one of-thy-maidservants.”
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Friendly. —Literally, unto the heart. The same phrase is rendered comfortably ( Isaiah 40:2 ).
Carpzov has rightly pointed this out: "But what am I saying when I call myself thy maiden? since I am not worthy to be compared to the least of thy maidens.
For it is evidently an acknowledgment of the kindness she had already received, and not a petition for a further kindness.Benson here takes the indicative reading against K&D and Pulpit, who insist on the optative; we print both so the disagreement stays visible.
14At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lə·‘êṯ hā·’ō·ḵel ḇō·‘az way·yō·mer lāh gō·šî hă·lōm wə·’ā·ḵalt min- hal·le·ḥem wə·ṭā·ḇalt pit·têḵ ba·ḥō·meṣ wat·tê·šeḇ miṣ·ṣaḏ haq·qō·wṣ·rîm way·yiṣ·bāṭ- lāh qā·lî wat·tō·ḵal wat·tiś·ba‘ wat·tō·ṯar
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said to-her Boaz at-the-time of-the-meal: “Draw-near hither, and-eat from-the-bread, and-dip thy-morsel in-the-vinegar.” And-she-sat beside the-reapers, and-he-heaped-for-her roasted-grain; and-she-ate, and-was-satisfied, and-had-left-over.
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Vinegar. —By this term is to be understood wine which had become sour ( Proverbs 10:26 ). As such, Nazarites were forbidden to use it ( Numbers 6:3 ). Similar to this was the vinegar of the Gospel narrative, a sour wine generally mixed with water, which was offered to our Saviour ( Matthew 27:48 , &c.).
He gave her so much, that after satisfying her own wants, she had some (Ru 2:18) in reserve for her mother-in-law.
And she sat by the reapers — Not with or among them, but at some little distance, as one inferior to them.
The Midrash (g) gives an allegorical sense of these words, and applies them to the Messiah and his kingdom, and interprets the bread of the bread of the kingdom, and the vinegar of the chastisements and afflictions of the Messiah, as it is said, "he was wounded for our transgressions", &c. Isaiah 53:5 which, by the way, is a concession that the prophecy in that chapter relates to himGill is reporting an ancient Jewish allegory on this verse, not offering it as his own exegesis; his parenthetical remark about Isaiah 53 is a polemical aside of his era. We pass it on as testimony to how the verse has been read, not as a reading of what the verse says.
15When Ruth got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not insult her.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tā·qām lə·laq·qêṭ bō·‘az ’eṯ- way·ṣaw nə·‘ā·rāw lê·mōr gam tə·laq·qêṭ bên hā·‘o·mā·rîm wə·lō ṯaḵ·lî·mū·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-rose to-glean; and-commanded Boaz his-young-men, saying: “Even between the-sheaves let-her-glean, and-ye-shall-not shame-her.”
Where the English smooths the original
These directions of Boaz went far beyond the bounds of generosity and compassion for the poor; and show that he felt a peculiar interest in Ruth
The Vulgate version completely merges out of sight the poetic beauty and tenderness of the injunction by rendering it thus: "Do not hinder her."
Because he would not have her to eat the bread of idleness, but honestly to get it with the sweat of her brow, according to her duty and present condition.Poole is answering his own question — why Boaz did not simply hand her a sack of grain. His answer preserves her work, and with it her standing.
16Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḡam šōl- tā·šōl·lū lāh min- haṣ·ṣə·ḇā·ṯîm wa·‘ă·zaḇ·tem wə·liq·qə·ṭāh wə·lō ṯiḡ·‘ă·rū- ḇāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-also pulling ye-shall-pull-out for-her from-the-bundles, and-ye-shall-leave-[them], and-she-shall-glean, and-ye-shall-not rebuke her.
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What a noble pattern have we here to instruct us in what manner to bestow benefits, namely, so as to spare those whom we oblige the confusion of receiving, and ourselves the temptation of vain glory in giving.
the bundles ] Only here; in Assyr. the root ( ṣabâtu ) means ‘to grasp’; in the Mishnah and Jewish Aram.A lexical caution worth keeping: 'bundles' is an inference from cognate languages, since the noun occurs nowhere else in Hebrew.
The act of deliberate, as opposed to unintentional, drawing, is expressed by the emphatic repetition of the verb
17So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tə·laq·qêṭ baś·śā·ḏeh ‘aḏ- hā·‘ā·reḇ wat·taḥ·bōṭ ’êṯ ’ă·šer- liq·qê·ṭāh way·hî kə·’ê·p̄āh śə·‘ō·rîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-gleaned in-the-field until the-evening; and-she-beat-out what she-had-gleaned, and-it-was about-an-ephah of-barley.
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Beat out. —That is, she threshed it herself, so as to save the labour of carrying away the straw.
Namely, with a stick, as the word implies (compare Deuteronomy 24:20 ; Isaiah 27:12 )
so that Ruth got enough in one day, for herself and her mother-in-law, which would last five days at least. This was a great deal for one woman to pick up, ear by ear, in one day
18She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tiś·śā wat·tā·ḇō·w hā·‘îr ḥă·mō·w·ṯāh ’êṯ wat·tê·re ’ă·šer- liq·qê·ṭāh wat·tō·w·ṣê ’ă·šer- hō·w·ṯi·rāh miś·śā·ḇə·‘āh wat·tit·ten- lāh ’êṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-lifted-[it] and-came-[into] the-city, and-her-mother-in-law saw what she-had-gleaned; and-she-brought-out and-gave to-her what she-had-left-over from-her-satiety.
Where the English smooths the original
A slight change of pronunciation gives a more expressive sense: she shewed her mother in lawA proposed repointing, not the received text; we record it because the sense it yields is materially different.
She did eat as much as she desired of what she had gleaned, and her mother, as I suppose, with her, and the residue she gave to her mother to lay up for future use.
she reserved for her mother, and now gave it to her; an instance of that piety commended by the apostle, 1 Timothy 5:4
Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land; her vanity ended in disgrace, Ge 34. Ruth kept at home, and helped to maintain her mother, and went out on no other errand than to get provision for her; her humility and industry ended in preferment.The contrast with Dinah is Henry's own moral framing, imported from Genesis 34; nothing in Ruth 2 draws it. We keep it as a sample of how the chapter was preached, not as exegesis of the verse.
19Then her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? Blessed be the man who noticed you.” So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ḥă·mō·w·ṯāh wat·tō·mer lāh ’ê·p̄ōh liq·qaṭt hay·yō·wm wə·’ā·nāh ‘ā·śîṯ bā·rūḵ yə·hî mak·kî·rêḵ wat·tag·gêḏ la·ḥă·mō·w·ṯāh ’êṯ ’ă·šer- ‘ā·śə·ṯāh ‘im·mōw šêm hā·’îš ’ă·šer ‘ā·śî·ṯî ‘im·mōw hay·yō·wm bō·‘az wat·tō·mer
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said to-her her-mother-in-law: “Where hast-thou-gleaned today, and-where didst-thou-work? May-he-that-took-notice-of-thee be blessed.” And-she-told her-mother-in-law with-whom she-had-worked, and-said: “The-name of-the-man with-whom I-worked today [is] Boaz.”
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Naomi easily perceives that the quantity of corn brought home is unusually large, and that therefore some special kindness must have been shown
Naomi invokes a blessing on the benefactor before she knows who he is; the author delights in such dramatic fitness
It is a good question to ask ourselves in the evening, “Where have I gleaned to-day?” What improvements have I made in grace or knowledge? What have I learned or done, which will turn to account?Benson turns the verse into self-examination; it is application, not exegesis, and Henry makes the same move on the same words.
20Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
nā·‘o·mî wat·tō·mer lə·ḵal·lā·ṯāh hū bā·rūḵ Yah·weh ’ă·šer lō- ‘ā·zaḇ ḥas·dōw ’eṯ- ha·ḥay·yîm wə·’eṯ- ham·mê·ṯîm nā·‘o·mî wat·tō·mer lāh hā·’îš qā·rō·wḇ hū lā·nū mig·gō·’ă·lê·nū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Naomi to-her-daughter-in-law: “Blessed-[be] he to-YHWH, who has-not forsaken his-chesed with the-living and-with the-dead.” And-said to-her Naomi: “Near to-us [is] the-man; from-our-redeemers [is] he.”
Where the English smooths the original
It is not clear whether the grammatical antecedent is God or Boaz. Either way a good sense is obtained.
Some take these words to be descriptive of Yahveh. Others take them to be descriptive of Boaz.Pulpit lays out the disagreement before taking a side; we print the neutral statement so the reader sees the fork in the road.
the redeemer, who had the right: (1) of redeeming the inheritance of the person; (2) of marrying the widow; (3) of avenging the death.
one of our redeemers , or avengers , to whom it belongs to avenge our persons, and to redeem our lands, and to marry thee, the widow and relict of his next kinsman
21Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished gathering all my harvest.’”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
rūṯ ham·mō·w·’ă·ḇî·yāh wat·tō·mer gam kî- ’ā·mar ’ê·lay tiḏ·bā·qîn ‘im- han·nə·‘ā·rîm ’ă·šer- lî ‘aḏ ’im- kil·lū ’êṯ kāl- lî haq·qā·ṣîr ’ă·šer-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Ruth the-Moabitess: “Also, for he-said to-me: ‘With the-young-men who [are] mine thou-shalt-cleave, until they-have-finished all the-harvest which [is] mine.’”
Where the English smooths the original
Emphatic in the Hebrew. As long as my reaping lasts, cleave steadily to us.
is quite in place as the more comprehensive gender, as a designation of the reapers generally, both male and femaleK&D is harmonising a real discrepancy between Ruth's masculine report and Boaz's feminine instruction; the reading is reasonable but it is a harmonisation.
She tells what kindness Boaz had showed her; but not how he had commended her. Humility teaches not only not to praise ourselves, but not to be forward in repeating the praise which others have given us.
22And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work with his young women, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
nā·‘o·mî wat·tō·mer ’el- kal·lā·ṯāh rūṯ bit·tî kî ṭō·wḇ ṯê·ṣə·’î ‘im- na·‘ă·rō·w·ṯāw wə·lō yip̄·gə·‘ū- ḇāḵ ’a·ḥêr bə·śā·ḏeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Naomi to-Ruth her-daughter-in-law: “Good-[it is], my-daughter, that thou-go-out with his-young-women, and-they-will-not fall-upon-thee in-another field.”
Where the English smooths the original
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.JFB reads a matchmaking intention into Naomi here; the text at this point says only that she called it good. The intention becomes explicit in 3:1.
In the field of a less pious man than Boaz a poor maiden might come to mischief
In particular, it would save Ruth from running the risk of being rudely handled by utter, and perhaps rough and unprincipled, strangers.
23So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tiḏ·baq bə·na·‘ă·rō·wṯ bō·‘az lə·laq·qêṭ ‘aḏ- haś·śə·‘ō·rîm ū·qə·ṣîr ha·ḥiṭ·ṭîm qə·ṣîr- kə·lō·wṯ wat·tê·šeḇ ’eṯ- ḥă·mō·w·ṯāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-cleaved to-the-young-women of-Boaz to-glean, until the-finishing of-the-barley-harvest and-the-wheat-harvest; and-she-dwelt with her-mother-in-law.
Where the English smooths the original
Unspoiled by mixing with her new society, she stops on quietly at the end of her task, and tends her mother-in-law at home with the same fidelity with which she had worked for her abroad.
she dwelt with ] Or, with a slight change, she returned unto ; so Vulg.A textual alternative, followed by the Vulgate, Luther and Coverdale; Pulpit argues against it. We print it because the pointing is genuinely open.
In this last remark there is a tacit allusion to the fact that a change took place for Ruth when the harvest was over.
The clause was written, apparently, for the very purpose of bringing out clearly before the mind of the reader her stainless innocence, and sweet simplicity, and never-tiring devotion to her noble mother-in-law.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The chapter opens by handing the reader a fact the characters do not have. Naomi has מְיֻדָּע — a known-one, which Barnes insists is “a wholly different word” from the gāʼal of v. 20, and which Cambridge says “strictly… does not mean more than familiar friend.” He is a גִּבּוֹר חַיִל: K&D notes the phrase “generally means the brave man of war… but here it signifies a man of property,” while Pulpit settles on “a strong and substantial yeoman.” His name lands last, and the sources cannot agree what it means — Gill and Barnes take it as “in him is strength” after the temple pillar of 1 Kings 7:21; Cambridge calls the derivation uncertain; K&D denies the popular etymology outright. Gill presses the awkward silence in v. 1: Naomi never applied to this man, and he had not sought her out, “but perhaps he was not acquainted with their indigent circumstances.”
Then Ruth proposes work. Both JFB and Benson are careful about the law: gleaning was a right (Leviticus 19:9; Deuteronomy 24:19), but, as JFB puts it, “liberty to glean behind the reapers… was not a right that could be claimed.” So she asks for חֵן, favour, from whichever man will give it. And the narrator reports the result in a phrase that trips over itself: וַיִּ֣קֶר מִקְרֶ֔הָ, which K&D renders “her chance chanced to hit upon the field” and Ellicott “her hap happened.” Gill says the quiet part: “though it was hap and chance to her… it was according to the purpose, and by the providence and direction of God.” Cambridge sees the same design running through the whole book — the writer “intends us to share his strong belief in Providence, over-ruling unpremeditated actions and words.”
וְהִנֵּה־ — “and behold.” The narrator lifts the reader's eyes at exactly the right instant, and the covenant name enters the chapter in a greeting between an employer and his workers. Cambridge: “A religious spirit governs the relations between employer and employed on this estate.” Benson reads it as a lost civic habit: “Such was the piety of ancient times, that it manifested itself even in men's civil conversation and worldly transactions.” Poole turns it on his own generation, who are “ashamed of” such speech and “call it hypocrisy or vain ostentation.”
Boaz's first question is לְמִ֖י — Pulpit: “not who but whose is that young woman!” The steward's answer places her twice: a Moabite, and one who הַשָּׁ֥בָה, returned, though as Poole objects, she “could not properly be said to come back.” He then reports her request and her stamina, and the report ends in a clause nobody can fix. Cambridge is blunt: “the text is probably corrupt,” with LXX and Vulgate pulling opposite ways. Pulpit renders “Her resting at the hut (has been) little”; K&D, “her sitting in the house that is little.” ⚙ We record the damage rather than smooth it: what survives intact is that she had worked since first light.
Boaz's first word to her is a question — K&D catches the idiom: “‘thou hearest, dost thou not?’ interrogatio blande affirmat.” What follows is a ladder of provisions the statute never required: stay in this field; תִדְבָּקִ֖ין, cleave to my young women — Ellicott: “Literally, cleave to (Genesis 2:24)” — drink from the jars the young men drew; eat at my table; glean between the sheaves; and have grain pulled out of the bundles for you. Poole reads the order about the young men with grim realism: “Touching is oft taken for hurting.” Pulpit calls it “a fine euphemistic injunction; that was best obeyed, however, when most literally construed.” K&D draws the conclusion the text invites: “These directions of Boaz went far beyond the bounds of generosity and compassion for the poor.”
Ruth's answer (v. 10) is the chapter's theological centre. She falls on her face and asks why she has found חֵן — “that thou regardest me, who am only a stranger?” (K&D). Cambridge hears the sound-play: “The Hebr. has a subtle play on the two words take knowledge of me and stranger; the roots are distinct, but they sound alike.” Boaz's reply names her leaving — וַתַּֽעַזְבִ֞י, thou didst leave father, mother and birthland — and both Barnes and K&D notice whose story that is: K&D says she “hast therefore done what God commanded Abraham to do, Genesis 12:1,” and Barnes finds the reward-language of v. 12 recalling Genesis 15:1. Then the wings: Cambridge traces the figure to the eagle of Deuteronomy 32:11 and adds a line worth keeping — “The prayer was answered through the agency of him who uttered it.” Gill records the Targum's gloss, that she came “to be hid under the wings of the Shechinah of his glory.” Benson, more soberly, sees in v. 16 “a noble pattern… so as to spare those whom we oblige the confusion of receiving, and ourselves the temptation of vain glory in giving.”
She threshes what she gleaned — Ellicott: “she threshed it herself, so as to save the labour of carrying away the straw” — and it is an ephah. Barnes and Gill both do the arithmetic against Exodus 16:16: enough for two women for about five days. Gill marvels: “This was a great deal for one woman to pick up, ear by ear, in one day,” and credits the handfuls deliberately dropped. Naomi does the same arithmetic instantly. Ellicott: “Naomi easily perceives that the quantity of corn brought home is unusually large.” So she blesses a man she cannot name — Cambridge: “Naomi invokes a blessing on the benefactor before she knows who he is; the author delights in such dramatic fitness.” Then the name is spoken, and Poole's reading of Ruth's evening (she also produced the food she had saved from her own meal) is what Gill calls “an instance of that piety commended by the apostle, 1 Timothy 5:4.”
Naomi's blessing turns theological, and the grammar turns ambiguous. Ellicott: “It is not clear whether the grammatical antecedent is God or Boaz. Either way a good sense is obtained.” Pulpit lays out both camps and leans toward Boaz, since “Boaz's peculiar kindness to the living was his kindness to the deceased”; K&D and Gill read it of YHWH's חֶסֶד to the living and the dead alike. ⚙ The ambiguity may be the point: in this book the kindness of God and the kindness of a man are not two events.
Then the word the chapter has been walking toward: מִֽגֹּאֲלֵ֖נוּ. Cambridge: “Here the word goʼel occurs for the first time in the story.” Barnes sets out the office — the right of redeeming the inheritance, of marrying the widow, of avenging blood (Leviticus 25:25–31, 47–55; Deuteronomy 25:5–10) — and Poole notes Naomi's careful “one of,” since “he was a very near kinsman, and one to whom that office belonged, in case of the refusal of one person.” JFB, reading Naomi's counsel in v. 22, thinks “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.” The chapter ends with two harvests gone and Ruth still under Naomi's roof — Pulpit: the clause was written “for the very purpose of bringing out clearly… her stainless innocence.” K&D hears the unfinished note: “a tacit allusion to the fact that a change took place for Ruth when the harvest was over.”
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Ruth 2 never once says that God did anything. The only sentences about God in the chapter are spoken by people — a greeting (v. 4), a prayer (v. 12), a blessing (v. 20) — and the narrator's single comment on causation is the doubled Hebrew וַיִּ֣קֶר מִקְרֶ֔הָ, her chance chanced, which insists so hard on accident that the insistence becomes the argument. That is deliberate. The chapter is teaching the reader to recognise providence in a form that is indistinguishable, from inside the day, from luck and from ordinary decency.
Watch one Hebrew root do it. In v. 11 Boaz praises Ruth because she עָזַב — left, forsook — her father, mother and homeland. In v. 16 he orders his men to עָזַב stalks on the ground for her: the same verb, now meaning deliberate abandonment for someone's good. And in v. 20 Naomi says that the One who has not עָזַב His חֶסֶד toward the living and the dead is to be blessed. The woman who forsook everything is met by a man who forsakes grain on purpose, and Naomi correctly names the pattern: God has not forsaken. The Hebrew does not argue this. It simply uses the same word three times and waits.
So the chapter's doctrine of providence has hands. Cambridge, on v. 12, catches it in one line: “The prayer was answered through the agency of him who uttered it.” Boaz prays that YHWH will repay Ruth's work and shelter her under His wings — and then repays her work and shelters her himself. ⚙ If that is right, the chapter's demand on the reader is not mainly to marvel at coincidence but to become the answer to someone's prayer while still meaning the prayer. The safest thing to say, and the hardest, is this: nothing in Ruth 2 could be proved to be God from inside Ruth 2. It could only be trusted, and then obeyed.
Her chance chanced — and the chapter never says otherwise, because the chapter is teaching you to read a day you cannot yet interpret.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Ruth's request in v. 2 and her work in vv. 3, 7, 15–17 are the gleaning law in motion. The Verifier confirms that this unit shares with Leviticus 19:9 and 23:22 both לָקַט (lâqaṭ, H3950 — the statute's own technical verb) and שָׂדֶה (sâdeh, H7704). JFB and Cambridge both cite the law directly, and Cambridge lists its beneficiaries: “the poor, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.” Ruth is at least three of the four. K&D adds the realism that makes the chapter dramatic rather than merely legal: the law “expressly secured to the poor the right to glean… but hard-hearted farmers and reapers threw obstacles in the way of the poor, and even forbade their gleaning altogether.” ⚙ The chapter is therefore not a story about a generous exception to the law but about a man who keeps a law that was widely evaded, and then goes past it.
Leviticus 19:9 · Leviticus 23:22
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3950 lâqaṭ (in 34 vv — the technical verb of the gleaning statute) and H7704 sâdeh (in 309 vv). The link is verbal in the strict sense of shared vocabulary, not a quotation formula: Ruth 2 enacts the statute's own terms without citing it. The verbal tier rests on that lexeme together with the unanimous identification, by JFB, Cambridge, K&D, Poole, Benson and Gill alike, of these exact verses as the law Ruth is living under. Deuteronomy 24:19, also cited by them, is their cross-reference and was not machine-checked here.
The two Isaiah passages the Verifier surfaces use the same harvest vocabulary as this chapter: שִׁבֹּלֶת (shibbôl, ears of grain — the very word of Ruth 2:2), לָקַט (lâqaṭ, to glean) and קָצַר (qâtsar, to reap). In Isaiah 17:5 the picture is a field stripped down to the few ears left standing; in Isaiah 27:12 the LORD Himself does the beating-out, one by one. ⚙ We claim no quotation in either direction and no literary dependence — only that Israel's prophets reached for gleaning imagery to describe what is left when almost everything is gone, and that Ruth 2 is a narrative in that key: a household reduced to nothing is fed by exactly what the reapers leave. Barnes independently cites Isaiah 27:12 at Ruth 2:17 for the verb beat out.
Isaiah 17:5 · Isaiah 27:12
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7641 shibbôl (in 16 vv), H3950 lâqaṭ (in 34 vv) and H7114 qâtsar (in 46 vv). Real verbal contact within a shared harvest/remnant motif; deliberately tiered structural rather than verbal because no quotation, citation or dependence is being claimed in either direction.
Twice in this unit the narrator attaches Boaz to Elimelech's clan (2:1, 2:3), and the phrase is not decoration: it is the legal ground on which everything in ch. 4 will be transacted. The Verifier confirms that Ruth 4:3 and 4:9 share with this unit the rare proper name אֱלִימֶלֶךְ (H458 — in only 6 verses in the whole canon) together with H1162 Bôʻaz and H5281 Noʻŏmîy. In 4:9 the same formula appears in the mouth of Boaz at the gate, before witnesses, as the title-deed of a redemption. ⚙ The narrator's throwaway line in 2:1 is the legal premise of the book's last chapter, laid down before anyone in the story knows it matters. Cambridge notes that goʼel itself does not appear until 2:20; the clan-formula gets there first.
Ruth 4:3 · Ruth 4:9
basis: Verifier: shared H458 ʼĔlîymelek (in 6 vv — rare), plus H1162 Bôʻaz (22 vv) and H5281 Noʻŏmîy (20 vv). The rarity of H458 and the repetition of the identical narrator's formula make this a genuine verbal link within the book; it is not a quotation of another book, and no such claim is made.
When Orpah let go, Ruth דָּבְקָה — she clave to Naomi (1:14). The Verifier confirms H1692 dâbaq as the lexeme shared between that verse and this unit, where it appears three times: Boaz tells her to cleave to his young women (2:8), Ruth repeats the instruction to Naomi (2:21), and the narrator reports that she did (2:23). Ellicott glosses the verb at 2:8 “Literally, cleave to (Genesis 2:24)” — that Genesis reference is his, not a Verifier result, and we pass it on as his. ⚙ The observation we would add is only this: the word by which Ruth's loyalty was first measured becomes the word by which her safety is secured. What she did for Naomi with no protection is now what protects her.
Ruth 1:14 · Genesis 2:24
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H1692 dâbaq (in 52 vv) linking Ruth 1:14 to Ruth 2:8, 2:21, 2:23 — a real verbal link, tiered structural because 52 verses is not rare enough to carry a quotation claim. The Genesis 2:24 reference is Ellicott's cross-reference at Ruth 2:8, reported as his and not machine-verified here.
Boaz's תַּֽחַת־כְּנָפָ֑יו (v. 12) is not coined on the spot. K&D states that the figure “is derived from Deuteronomy 32:11,” the eagle stirring its nest, and compares Psalm 91:4, Psalm 36:8 and Psalm 57:2; Cambridge agrees — “the figure is that of an eagle, Deuteronomy 32:11” — and Poole adds Psalm 17:8, while also offering the alternative that the allusion is to “the wings of the cherubims, between which God dwelt.” Pulpit hears Fuller's domestic version, “borrowed from a hen, which, with her clucking, summons together her straggling chickens.” ⚙ Two quite different images, eagle and hen, have been read into one Hebrew noun; the shared element is a creature spreading cover over what cannot protect itself, which is exactly Ruth's position in this field.
Deuteronomy 32:11 · Psalm 91:4 · Psalm 36:7 · Psalm 57:2
basis: Not a Verifier-computed link: these references are the cited cross-references of K&D (Deut 32:11; Ps 91:4; 36:8; 57:2), Cambridge (Deut 32:11; Ps 36:7; 57:2; 91:4) and Poole (Deut 32:11; Ps 17:8; 36:7; 91:4), given here on their authority as a shared metaphor of sheltering wings. No shared-lexeme frequency is claimed.
Ellicott, commenting on the חֹמֶץ (chômets, H2558) into which Ruth dips her morsel, makes the connection himself: “By this term is to be understood wine which had become sour (Proverbs 10:26). As such, Nazarites were forbidden to use it (Numbers 6:3). Similar to this was the vinegar of the Gospel narrative, a sour wine generally mixed with water, which was offered to our Saviour (Matthew 27:48).” JFB and K&D describe the same field-drink as refreshment in the heat. ⚙ The link is figural, not lexical, and it cannot be otherwise: a Hebrew noun and a Greek noun share no Strong's number, so no verbal tier is available here on principle. What can honestly be said is that the same cheap sour wine appears in a field where a foreign widow is welcomed to a master's table, and at a cross where the Master is given it by strangers.
Matthew 27:48 · Numbers 6:3 · Proverbs 10:26
basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew chômets H2558 ↔ Greek ὄξος): shared Strong's numbers are impossible across Testaments, so no verbal tier is available and none is claimed. The connection is Ellicott's own, made explicitly at Ruth 2:14; the Numbers 6:3 and Proverbs 10:26 references are also his. Figural reading — widely made by later commentators, but not an ancient consensus and not a quotation.
Three pedigrees for Boaz sit in the commentary on v. 1, and they do not rest on the same kind of evidence. (a) The genealogical line. Ellicott, reasoning from Ruth 4:18ff., makes Boaz grandson of “the Nahshon who was prince of the tribe of Judah during the wanderings in the desert and son of Salmon and Rahab of Jericho”; Gill gives the same line and adds Numbers 7:12 and Matthew 1:5. Ellicott himself flags the chronological strain and proposes “that in the last two generations we have children of their fathers’ old age.” (b) Boaz as the judge Ibzan. Gill: “This man is commonly said by the Jews to be the same with Ibzan, a judge of Israel, Judges 12:8.” He relays it; he does not argue it. (c) Boaz as Elimelech's nephew. K&D names the tradition and undercuts it in the same clause: “According to the rabbinical tradition, which is not well established however, Boaz was a nephew of Elimelech.” ⚙ We flag all three rather than build on any. Only (a) is anchored in a scriptural text, and even there the source who reports it records a difficulty of date; (b) and (c) are rabbinic traditions repeated by our commentators, one of them expressly doubted by the commentator repeating it.
Ruth 4:18 · Matthew 1:5 · Judges 12:8
basis: Flagged because the provenance is mixed and partly contested inside our own sources: the Ruth 4:18 / Matthew 1:5 line is reported by Ellicott and Gill, with Ellicott himself noting a chronological difficulty; the Ibzan identification (Judges 12:8) is a rabbinic tradition Gill relays without endorsing; and K&D calls the nephew tradition 'not well established.' No Verifier-computed shared lexeme supports any of these links, and Matthew 1:5 is cross-Testament, where shared Strong's numbers are impossible — so no verbal tier is available and none is claimed.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The chapter ends by naming an office. Cambridge: “Here the word goʼel occurs for the first time in the story.” Barnes defines it: “the redeemer, who had the right: (1) of redeeming the inheritance of the person; (2) of marrying the widow; (3) of avenging the death,” citing Leviticus 25:25–31, 47–55 and Deuteronomy 25:5–10. Poole adds the crucial qualification in Naomi's own words — “one of them,” because the office could be declined, and one nearer man stood first. K&D refers the reader to Leviticus 25:26, 48–49 for the institution itself.
⚙ What the chapter establishes before the office is ever named is capacity plus disposition. Boaz is introduced as גִּבּ֣וֹר חַ֔יִל, a man with power (v. 1); everything from v. 8 to v. 16 shows what he does with it toward someone who has no claim on him. That is the pattern the New Testament will require of a redeemer: a kinsman who has the right, the means, and the willingness, and who is not compelled. Matthew Henry, at v. 8, makes the application in the plainest terms the tradition has: “let us, in the kindness of Boaz to Ruth, note the kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ to poor sinners.” He offers it as analogy, and we keep it as analogy — the text is describing a Bethlehemite landowner, and the figure holds because the office does, not because the chapter is predicting anyone.
Ruth 2:20 · Leviticus 25:25 · Ruth 4:9
Boaz's blessing (v. 12) is addressed to a woman whom the Targum, as Gill relays it, classes with a people who “were not fit and worthy to enter into the congregation of the Lord” — and the blessing is deliberately Abrahamic. K&D says she “hast therefore done what God commanded Abraham to do, Genesis 12:1,” and Barnes notes independently that “the similarity of expression here to Genesis 15:1, and in Ruth 2:11 to Genesis 12:1, makes it probable that Boaz had the case of Abraham in his mind.” Barnes adds a further observation: the force of the added title the God of Israel “lies in the person spoken of being a foreigner.” Gill records the Targum's reading of “under whose wings” as the language of conversion — “thou art come to be proselyted, and to be hid under the wings of the Shechinah of his glory” — and Cambridge's line completes it: “The prayer was answered through the agency of him who uttered it.”
⚙ The redemptive-historical weight is straightforward and does not need inflating. A Moabite woman leaves father, mother and homeland exactly as Abraham did, receives Abraham's reward-promise in Abraham's terms, and is brought under the wings of Israel's God — and the genealogy of Ruth 4:18ff. runs from this marriage to David. The tradition recorded here (Ellicott, Gill) already has Boaz as the son of Salmon and Rahab of Jericho: a Canaanite mother, a Moabite wife, and the royal line. Geneva's marginal note on v. 10 — that she is “of the Moabites, who are enemies of God's people” — is the fact that makes the blessing of v. 12 remarkable rather than sentimental.
Ruth 2:12 · Genesis 12:1 · Genesis 15:1
Gill preserves an old Jewish allegory on v. 14 and reports it honestly as such: “The Midrash gives an allegorical sense of these words, and applies them to the Messiah and his kingdom, and interprets the bread of the bread of the kingdom, and the vinegar of the chastisements and afflictions of the Messiah, as it is said, ‘he was wounded for our transgressions,’ &c. Isaiah 53:5 which, by the way, is a concession that the prophecy in that chapter relates to him.” Ellicott, on the same verse, connects the field's sour wine to the drink offered at the cross (Matthew 27:48).
⚙ Our own reading is more modest than the Midrash and should be marked as ours. The table scene has a precise shape: the master calls the outsider close (גֹּ֤שִֽׁי הֲלֹם֙, draw near hither), gives bread with his own hand, and she וַתִּשְׂבַּ֖ע וַתֹּתַֽר — ate, was satisfied, and had left over — which Barnes compares to Luke 15:17 and which she carries home to the one who could not come (v. 18). A place at the table given, not earned; enough and more than enough; and the surplus taken to the hungry who stayed behind. We do not claim the narrator intended this, and we do not claim the Midrash's Christology. We claim the shape, and that the shape is recognisable.
Ruth 2:14 · Ruth 2:18 · Isaiah 53:5
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. This unit carries more textual uncertainty than its smooth English suggests, and the sources say so openly. (1) 2:1 — the Kethib/Qere at מְיֻדָּע/מוֹדַע: Pulpit judges “the C'tib reading… is much to be preferred to the K'ri”; K&D takes the Kethib as an acquaintance and the Qere as a construct “acquaintanceship.” Both agree the word is not a kinship term. (2) 2:7 — the closing clause זֶ֛ה שִׁבְתָּ֥הּ הַבַּ֖יִת מְעָֽט is the chapter's crux. Cambridge: “the text is probably corrupt,” with LXX (“she hath not rested in the field even a little time”) and Vulgate (“not even for a moment hath she returned to the house”) pulling opposite directions; Pulpit reports that Drusius was tortured by it and Coverdale gave up. BSB's “except that she rested a short time in the shelter” is one defensible reading. (3) 2:18 — Cambridge notes that “a slight change of pronunciation gives a more expressive sense: she shewed her mother in law” instead of “her mother-in-law saw.” (4) 2:20 — מִֽגֹּאֲלֵ֖נוּ is written defectively; K&D notes the plene form “is found in several MSS and editions,” and Pulpit discusses Michaelis and Gesenius on the point. (5) 2:23 — the last verb can be pointed וַתֵּ֖שֶׁב (“she dwelt”) or וַתָּשָׁב (“she returned”); the Vulgate, Luther and Coverdale took the latter, and Cambridge records both.
Disputed interpretation. On 2:13 the sources genuinely disagree about mood: Benson and Gill read אֶמְצָא־ as indicative — “it is evidently an acknowledgment of the kindness she had already received” — while K&D and Pulpit insist on the optative, K&D arguing that an indicative “does not tally with the modesty and humility shown by Ruth.” On 2:20 the antecedent of “who has not forsaken his kindness” is unresolved: Ellicott says outright that “it is not clear whether the grammatical antecedent is God or Boaz,” Pulpit sets out both cases, K&D and Gill take it of YHWH. On 2:7, Pulpit and Carpzov read Ruth's request as “gather into bundles,” not “among the sheaves,” on the ground that the bolder request would not be granted until v. 15. On the etymology of “Boaz” there is no agreement at all: “in him is strength” (Gill, Barnes, and Cambridge as a possibility), a contraction of Baʻal-ʻaz (Cambridge, preferred), an unattested root meaning alacrity (K&D), or simply undetermined (Pulpit). We have not chosen.
Sources. All Hebrew, parsing and Strong's data come from the Berean interlinear supplied in the brief; the English base text is the BSB. All ✦ quotations are verbatim public-domain commentary, resolved from anchors by code and never retyped. Ancient authorities cited inside those quotations (Targum, Midrash Ruth, Jarchi, Josephus, Maimonides, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and modern travellers such as Robinson and Thomson) reach us only through those commentators and have not been independently checked here; Gill's Midrash allegory on 2:14 in particular is reported by him, not asserted by him.
What is ⚙ and fallible. Every claim marked ⚙ — the reading of ʻâzab across vv. 11, 16 and 20; the observation about providence being narrated as accident; the table-shape in the third Christ entry — is our synthesis, offered to be tested and not to be received as sourced fact. Where a thread badge says a reference came from a commentator rather than from the Verifier, that distinction is load-bearing and should not be smoothed away.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)