Ruth 2, A Man Named Boaz

Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth, have returned to Bethlehem, Judah, just as the harvest begins. Will the harvest be fruitful? Can the two widows survive in this small town?

Ruth 2: 1-2, Harvest
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor." 

Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." 

The first verse sets us up for the rest of the chapter. We are introduced to Boaz before he appears in the story. This is a technique intended to heighten our suspense and follows naturally from the last verses of chapter one.

The Storyteller tells us that Ruth, the Moabitess, seeks to work in the fields. Our Storyteller emphasizes Ruth's alien status.

The phrase "relative on her husband's side" could apparently be interpreted "friend of her husband". Most likely Boaz was both -- maybe a cousin and friend of Elimelech, for example.

Ruth 2: 3, Harvest

So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. 

"As it turned out", Ruth ends up working in the field of Boaz! What a coincidence! The Storyteller will repeatedly mention coincidences and challenge us to decide if they are indeed accidental.

Gleaning, described in Deuteronomy 24: 19, allowed the poor to find enough food to survive.

Ruth 2: 4-7, Harvest

Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, "The LORD be with you!" 

"The LORD bless you!" they called back. 

Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, "Whose young woman is that?" 

The foreman replied, "She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, `Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter."

The phrase "just then" could also be translated "behold!" or "look". We are to pay attention. The story is then carried quickly forward by dialogue, in four important statements. In the first two, Boaz greets the harvesters in the name of YHWH and they respond with the same blessing. Then Boaz says, essentially, "Whoa, who is that young woman?!"  In the foreman's reply we are reminded again that Ruth is an alien, an outsider and then we learn that she is a hard worker. 

If this were a Hallmark movie, we, the audience, would now know that this is the couple we are to root far.  He is wealthy, yet kind and upright.  She is a hard worker but also young and attractive. We hope that they will become a couple.  Although this story is three thousand years before Hallmark movies, the human desire for romance is unchanged! The ancient listeners, gathered in a circle around the Storyteller, also root for Ruth and Boaz.

Commentary (from The Book of Ruth, by Robert L. Hubbard): The Hebrew word na'ar appears three times in this passage. It is embedded in the phrase which the NIV interprets as "foreman" and in the foreman's reply as an adjective for "Moabitess". It means "young" and also shows up in the question of Boaz as "young woman".

Ruth 2: 8-9, My daughter
So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. 

"I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled." 

Boaz addresses the woman as "my daughter". This is a protective expression, followed by some statements that emphasize the protection.  The phrases "listen to me", "Don't go", "Stay here" are emphatic. Boaz is giving some strong advice. The fields could be a dangerous place for an unprotected woman.

Notice that Ruth's request in verse 2 has been answered.

Ruth 2: 10-13, Favor for a foreigner

At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me--a foreigner?" 

Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband--how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." 

"May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord," she said. "You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant--though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls."

There is wordplay in the Hebrew in verse 10. The word for foreigner was loosely "the unnoticed ones" and so the Hebrew phrase "anoki nokriya" apparently means "notice the unnoticed" or "recognized the unrecognized". Ruth is asking "Why do you do the undoable -- notice the unnoticeable foreigner?"

In verse 11, there occurs the phrase "leave father and mother". It appears only one other time in the Old Testament -- where?  Along the same lines, Hubbard reads hints into the response of Ruth: "May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord."

The word "favor" in verse 13 is hesed.

Notice Boaz' prayer: "May YHWH reward you." YHWH will indeed answer that prayer. Who do you think YHWH will use to reward her?!!

Ruth uses a strange word for herself when she says "servant" in verse 13. The common word would apparently be ama but Ruth uses sipha, a virgin slave of the lowest class, assigned to menial tasks. This represents her low status as a foreigner.  Ruth reserves ama for a later conversation, in the next chapter.

Ruth 2: 14-17, Mealtime
At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar." 

When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her." 

So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.

Boaz continues to provide little gifts to Ruth.  He then gives instructions that make sure her work will be rewarded.  The workers are even to help her glean by dropping extra stalks for her! At the end of the day, Ruth's grain is an ephah, probably about 30 pounds, a significant amount of food. Apparently a field worker might receive 1 to 2 pounds of food for his work, so an ephah is quite a large amount of barley, possibly as much as a month's worth.

Ruth 2: 18-19, "Where did you glean?"

She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough. 

Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!" 

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz," she said. 

It would not have been easy for Ruth to carry an ephah of barley back to town.  Ruth is a strong young woman! In addition to the ephah of barley, Ruth also gives her mother-in-law her left-over portion (doggie-bag) from lunch.

Dramatic technique: Ruth delays the name of her benefactor, to the very end of the sentence (also in the Hebrew).

Ruth 2: 20-22, Kinsman-redeemer

"The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers." 

Then Ruth the Moabitess said, "He even said to me, `Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.'" 

Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else's field you might be harmed."

In the ancient Hebrew culture, a kinsman-redeemer (Hebrew: go'el) was a relative who, according to Hubbard (pp. 188-9), had the responsibility to:

1. Repurchase property once owned by the dead relative but sold in time of need.
2. Purchase out of slavery relatives who had sold themselves due to poverty or need.
3. Avenge the killing of a relative by tracking down the murderer.
4. Receive money paid in restitution for a wrong committed against the dead relative.
5. Assist the relative in legal matters, lawsuits.

Apparently the go'el might also be expected to marry the widow of the deceased relative and take care of her children.

Naomi identifies Boaz as showing kindness to both the living and the dead. She may mean, by this, his kindness to Ruth is, by extension, a kindness to Elimelech and Elimelech's family.

Ruth 2: 23, Summary

So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Each harvest was about one month: April then May.

The storyteller says "and she lived with her mother-in-law" and starts to rise from his seat. Can you hear the audience say "Wait! That can't be! You're not done!" (Once again the storyteller simultaneously summarizes the story and teases us, hinting at the next episode.)