1 1 And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beth-lehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. 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 Beth-lehem-judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died; and she was left, and her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled thereabout ten years. And Mahlon and Chilion died both of them; and the woman was left of her two children and of her husband. 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. And she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother’s house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. And they said unto her, Nay, but we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should even have an husband to-night, and should

13 also bear sons; would ye therefore tarry till they were grown? would ye therefore stay from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieved me much for your sakes, for the hand of 14 the LORD is gone forth against me. And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and 15 Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her god: return thou after thy sister-in-law. 16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee: for 17 whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my 18 people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the 19 LORD do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me. And when she saw 20 that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left speaking unto her. So they two went 21 until they came to Beth-lehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Beth-lehem, 22 that all the city was moved about them, and the women said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with 23 me. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why call ye me 24 Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Beth-lehem in the beginning of barley harvest. 25 1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of 26 Elimelech; and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean among the cars of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. 27 And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on the portion of the field belonging unto Boaz, 28 who was of the family of Elimelech. And, behold, Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said unto 29 the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, the LORD bless thee. Then 30 said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this? And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came 31 back with Naomi out of the country of Moab: and she said, Let me glean, I pray you, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the 32 morning until now, save that she tarried a little in the house. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither pass from hence, 33 but abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. 34 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thy sight, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? 35 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knowest 36 not heretofore. The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD, 37 the God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to take refuge. Then she said, Let me find grace in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast 38 spoken kindly unto thine handmaid, though I be not as one of thine handmaidens. And at meal-time Boaz said unto her, Come hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and they reached her parched corn, and she did eat, 39 and was sufficed, and left thereof. And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not. And also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and rebuke her not. 40 So she gleaned in the field until even: and she beat out that she had gleaned, and it was about 41 an ephah of barley. And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought forth and gave to her that she had left after she was 42 sufficed. And her mother-in-law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to-day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she shewed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man’s name with whom I wrought to-day 43 is Boaz. And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is nigh 44 of kin unto us, one of our near kinsmen. And Ruth the Moabitess said, Yea, he said unto me, 45 Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest. And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, 23 and that they meet thee not in any other field. So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

The lovely idyl of Ruth is in sharp contrast with the bloody and turbulent annals of Judges. It happily reminds us of what we are apt to forget in reading such pages, that no times are so wild but that in them are quiet corners, green oases, all the greener for their surroundings, where life slides on in peaceful isolation from the tumult. The peaceful pictures of this little book, multiplied many thousand times, have to be set as a background to the lurid pictures of the Book of Judges. A. M.—It brings out one aspect of the times—viz., the religious feeling. For, notwithstanding the public corruption in certain of the tribes, there was a religious feeling pervading the nation as a body politic. Like the song of Deborah, and the prayer of Hannah, it reveals the reign of religion in the homes of the people. Gregg.

It prepares the way for the history of the house of David. It shows under what inherited influences of devotion and purity the youth of the shepherd-king was likely to have been passed. Of the authorship of the book we have comparatively few materials for conjecture. Like almost all the historical books of the Old Testament, it comes before us as absolutely anonymous. E. H. P.—On the concurrent testimony of all the ancient authorities it is part of the Jewish Canon of books written and compiled by their prophets. We must rest it on their authority, endorsed subsequently by Christ and his apostles. H. C.—In the absence of any note of time, we may place this story somewhere in the period of forty years of rest between Deborah and Gideon. Hence its insertion at this point. B.

Design of the Book.

To set forth the origin of David historically and genealogically, showing how a heathen, belonging to a people so hostile to the theocracy as the Moabites, was honored to become the progenitor of the great King David, because she placed unlimited trust in the Lord, and sought protection from the God of Israel. Davidson.—To lead to Providence; to show us how conversant it is about our private concerns, and to teach us in them all to have an eye to it, acknowledging God in all our ways, and in all events that concern us. To lead to Christ, who descended from Ruth, and part of whose genealogy concludes the book, from whence it is fetched into Mat. 1. The scene is laid in Bethlehem, the city where our Redeemer was born, H.—To pre-intimate, by the recorded adoption of a Gentile woman into the family from which Christ was to derive his origin, the final reception of the Gentile nations into the true church, as fellow-heirs of the salvation of the Gospel. The moral lessons which it incidentally teaches, that private families are as much the objects of Divine regard as the houses of princes; that the present life is a life of calamitous changes; that a devout trust in an overruling Providence will never fail of its reward; and that no condition, however adverse or afflicted, is absolutely hopeless, are truths that were never more strikingly illustrated than in the brief and simple narrative before us. Bush.

Its Character and Contents.

The Book of Ruth is not a history; nor is it a biography. It is only a little biographical episode in a history. It is a story; but, without doubt, a true story; and it speaks, by what Ewald calls “the pre-eminent beauty of its pictures and descriptions,” not to the hearts of Hebrews only, but to universal man. Morison.—This charming Eastern pastoral vindicates its claim to a place in the Canon of Scripture, by its simple and lovely pictures of the family relation, and of domestic and social life. Nowhere else in the Old Testament are the tender ties of kindred, of the maternal and filial relations, so exquisitely portrayed. Where else shall we find such truth and sincerity of unselfish maternal love, such purity and fervor of filial devotion? Conant.

In this book we have a glimpse into the domestic life of Israel, with its anxieties, sorrows, and sweetness. Women and children, honest work and homely talk; deaths, births, and marriages; loves, memories, and prayers, are all here. Human kindness, filial piety, affectionate constancy, uncomplaining toil, true chastity, sweet patience, strong faith, noble generosity, simple piety—are all here, and they are all observed by God, and are shown to be pleasing to him, who rewards them in due time. J. R. T.

Bethlehem is only a short distance from the edge of the great wilderness of Judah, which lies along the west flank of the Dead Sea. In this direction, fertile valleys are seen for only a few miles, after which is a billowy waste of rocky ridges—their general level declining rapidly toward the deep, streaming chasm of the

Dead Sea. Beyond the sea the blue masses of Moab appear. N. C. B.—Bethlehem occupies part of the summit and sides of a narrow ridge which shoots out eastward from the central chain of the Judean mountains, and breaks down abruptly into deep valleys on the north, south, and east. The steep slopes beneath the village are carefully terraced, and the terraces sweep in graceful curves round the ridge from top to bottom. In the valleys below, and on a little plain to the eastward, are some cornfields, whose fertility doubtless gave the place its name—Bethlehem, “house of bread.” Porter.

We were now so near Bethlehem that we could look straight down into the broad valley that lies between the gardens of the town and a range of lofty hills which bounds it northward, the far-off purple-tinted mountains of Moab forming its apparent limit to the east. Down in the valley, there seemed to spread before us the whole scene of the inimitable story of the Book of Ruth. The land near us—part of which had quite recently been under the plough, while other parts were green with the braid of wheat or barley—was unenclosed, as in those olden times so many thousand years since. It scarcely required an effort of fancy to fill up the scene again with its living figures—to picture the honest, manly Boaz down on those paternal fields; the jocund reapers plying their busy sickles; poor maidens gleaning behind them; while Ruth, the beautiful stranger from Moab, mingles silently with them, and gathers handfuls in her ample veil, to be taken home to Naomi and beaten out at nightfall. Thomson.—To this day the fields of Bethlehem illustrate many an incident in the Book of Ruth. The very salutation, “The Lord be with you!” and the reply, “The Lord bless thee!” may be heard as the farmer goes up to his laborers. The supper of the reapers, when the day’s work is done, is still the parched corn eaten on the spot—a few bunches of fresh ears, singed in a fire kindled for the purpose and then rubbed and roughly winnowed by the hand. The large cotton or linen cloth, “the veil,” which binds down the head-dress of the Bethlehemite woman, is very distinct from the female dress elsewhere, and is still, like Ruth’s, large enough to hold six measures of barley; and still the owner sleeps by his corn-heaps at night, generally with all his family, till the harvest is finished. Tristram.

The fields of Bethlehem are among the sacred spots of earth. Among them was the home of Boaz; the scene of Ruth’s gleaning, and of her marriage. In these pastures was trained the youthful David, who became the hero, the minstrel and the king of Israel. Between the pastures of Bethlehem and the stars of heaven was sung the angels’ song of good-will and peace. Here was born the Son of David, who was the Son of God. J. R. T.

5. Naomi is left destitute of her country, her husband, her children, her friends; yet even out of these hopeless ruins will God raise comfort to his servant. The first good news is that God hath visited his people with bread; now therefore, since her husband and sons were irrecoverable, she will try to recover her country and kindred. She that came from Bethlehem under the protection of a husband, attended with her sons, stored with substance, resolves now to measure all that way alone. Her adversity had stripped her of all but a good heart; that remains with her, and bears up her head in the deepest of her extremity. True Christian fortitude wades through all evils, and keeps firm footing against the stream. Bp. H.

8. As you have dealt with the dead and me.** This beautiful analogy has its root idea in love and home. Naomi links her own being with “the dead.” And with true hearts they never can be disassociated. Anniversaries of remembrance make our separations no more distant. They soften them. They give place for comforting remembrances; but the dead are near as ever. What a blessing so to live, so to fill our place as sons and daughters, so to sweeten, sublime, and sanctify life that others may make our conduct a plea with that God who has known our heart and life, and say, “The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and me.” W. M. S.—These Scriptures of olden time touch us so tenderly because they recognize the living hand, the loving heart of God. It is this which will make them never grow old. It is this which makes their inspiration living, and keeps their fountains of consolation open still. We are always meeting and parting, journeying forth and returning home. Our families are broken up, our churches have gates of entrance and departure, and the picture of life is always one of a tent-life. We are pilgrims and strangers, as all our fathers were. The key-note of this text is in that word “kindly.” W. M. S.

9. She pictured for them a new and a possible home in Moab, and prayed, “The Lord grant you that ye may find rest each of you in the home of her husband.” Home according to her ideal is a rest. There is something radically wrong in the home which is not a rest. Home is a rest; a rest for the husband; a rest for the wife; a rest for the children. Gregg.

10-14. It was a noble act of self-denial on the part of the aged Hebrew widow by this plain speaking to strip herself of all remaining comfort, and to face the dark future, utterly childless, alone, and helpless. And when one of them, Orpah, turned back, though with bitbitter sorrow at the parting, Naomi had a yet more trying task before her. Ruth had, indeed, fully understood her mother-in-law’s meaning; but there was another sacrifice which she must be prepared to make, if she followed Naomi. She must not only be parted from her people, but she must also be prepared to turn her back upon her ancestral religion. But Ruth had long made her choice, and in the words which intimated it there is such ardor and earnestness, such resolution and calmness, as to lift them far above the sphere of mere natural affection or sense of duty. They intimate the deliberate choice of a heart which belongs in the first place to Jehovah, the God of Israel, and which has learned to count all things but loss for the excellency of this knowledge. In truth, the choice of Ruth is wholly unaccountable, except on the ground that she felt herself in heart and by conviction one of a Hebrew household—an Israelitish woman in soul and life, and that although she should in a sense be disowned by those with whom she had resolved to cast in her lot. A. E.

As Naomi starts on her journey back to Bethlehem, they seem alike determined to cast in their lot with her, and so, with God’s people. It is not until Naomi calls upon them “to count the cost” that a difference appears. Orpah is not willing to give up all for God. When shut up to a present choice, between Israel and Moab, she weeps, but “she goes back to her people and her gods.” Poor, lost Orpah! “Almost persuaded,” standing upon the very threshold of the kingdom of heaven, but not entering therein. There is no sadder story in all the Scriptures. And the saddest thing about it is, that it is a story repeating itself from day to day, in every age and every country into which the Gospel comes. Armstrong.

Ruth realized, in her affectionate heart, a keen sense of her mother-in-law’s forlorn condition, returning alone to her once prosperous but now desolate home. Ruth could not consent to abandon her under these circumstances. The reply is beautiful beyond expression, in the tenderness with which the firm purpose of an affectionate heart is expressed: “Intreat me not to leave thee, and 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. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.” Surely, the simple eloquence of the mouth that speaks out of the abundance of the heart, never found more beautiful and touching expression than in these words of this young widow. K.

Her vow has stamped itself on the very heart of the world; and that not because of the beauty of its form simply, though even in our English version it sounds like a sweet and noble music, but because it expresses in a worthy form, and once for all, the utter devotion of a genuine and self-conquering love. It is the spirit which informs and breathes through these melodious words that make them so precious to us, and that also renders it impossible to utter any fitting comment on them. S. Cox.—There is no utterance in the Old Testament more pathetic and melodious than these words. Courage and sacrifice, love and devotion, breathe all through them. They condense, too, all that is prophetic of coming experience—the lodging and the loneliness, the weary pilgrimage and the grave in a foreign land. The mind cannot frame sentences like these without the glow of a sincere and sacrificial heart. We feel as we read them what grandeur there is in human nature when love evokes all its depth of power. It is not a skilful touch that can do this, but a soul alive to the call of love and duty. W. M. S.

Ruth’s passionate burst of tenderness is immortal. It has put into fitting words for all generations the deepest thoughts of loving hearts, and comes to us over all the centuries between as warm and living as when it welled up from that gentle, heroic soul. How many hearts, since Ruth spoke her vow, have found in it the words that fitted their love best! How often they have been repeated by quivering lips, and heard as music by loving ears! What has made them thus “enduring forever” is that they express most purely the self-sacrifice which is essential to all noble love. The very inmost longing of love is to give itself away to the object beloved; therefore all lesser givings are its food and delight; and when Ruth threw herself on Naomi’s withered breast, and sobbed out her passionate resolve, she was speaking the eternal language of love, and claiming Naomi for her own, in the very act of giving herself to Naomi. Human love should be the parent of all self-sacrificing as of all heroic virtues; and in our homes we do not live in love, as we ought, unless it leads us to the daily exercise of self-suppression and surrender, which is not felt to be loss, but the natural expression of our love, which it would be a crime against it and a pain to ourselves to withhold. But while her human love wrought self-sacrifice, it was not human love alone that did it. The cord that drew her was twisted of two strands, and her love to Naomi melted into her love of Naomi’s God. Blessed they who are drawn to the knowledge and love of the fountain of all love in heaven by the sweetness of the characters of his representatives in their homes, and who feel that they have learned to know God by seeing him in dear ones, whose tenderness has revealed his, and whose gracious words have spoken of his grace. If Ruth teaches us that we must give up all if we would truly follow the Lord, the way by which she came to her religion may teach us how great are the possibilities, and consequently the duties, of Christians to the members of their own families. If we had more elder women like Naomi, we should have more younger women like Ruth. A. M.

Like Ruth, this exemplary pattern of a resolute convert to God, must we take the same course. We must take the Lord for our God. “This God is my God f-rever and ever; I have avouched him for mine.” When we take God for our God, we must take his people for our people in all conditions - submit to the same yoke and draw in it faithfully; take up the same cross and carry it cheerfully; go where God would have us to go, lodge where he would have us to lodge, die where he will have us die. We must resolve to continue and persevere; and herein our adherence to Christ shall be closer than that of Ruth to Naomi; since death itself shall not separate us from our happiness in Christ. We must bind our souls with a bond never to break these resolutions, and swear unto the Lord that we will cleave to him. Fast bind, fast find. He that means honestly does not startle at assurances. H.

18. She left speaking unto her. Naomi, when she saw that Ruth was steadfastly-minded to go with her and to join the people of God, quietly yields to her desire and resumes her homeward journey. Ruth, too, resolutely sets forward upon a course whose prospects were so overshadowed and whose results were so unpromising. Like Abraham, she leaves the land of her nativity; she goes forth, not knowing whither she went, for like him, too, she had received and obeyed the command of Jehovah. Everything before her is dark. Naomi is not only poor, without name or means, but, through age and infirmity, utterly dependent. If Ruth goes with her the burden of their common support will rest entirely upon her own efforts. Yet she firmly declares her unalterable purpose to accompany the tried mother, to provide for her wants, to share her burdens and griefs, and henceforth to have one home, one interest, and one faith with Naomi in life and in death.

Neither in word, in feeling, nor in action does she manifest a desire to look back. But steadfastly, cheerfully, and with a whole unwavering soul she sets her face toward Judah, and stays the steps and encourages the desolate heart of Naomi as they journey thither. B.

The gentleness of a true woman covers a courage of the patient, silent sort, which, in its meek steadfastness, is nobler than the contempt of personal danger, which is vulgarly called bravery. Of that best kind of heroes there are few brighter examples, even in the annals of the church which numbers its virgin martyrs by the score, than this sweet figure of Ruth, as the eager vow comes from her young lips, which had already tasted sorrow, and were ready to drink its bitterest cup at the call of duty. She may well teach us to rectify our judgments, and to recognize the quiet heroism of many a modest life of uncomplaining suffering. So these two lonely widows are left, each seeking to sacrifice herself for the other. Who shall decide which was the more noble and truly womanly in her self-forgetfulness, — the elder, sadder heart, which strove to secure for the other some joy and fellowship at the price of its own deepened solitude; or the younger, which steeled itself against entreaties, and cast away friends and country for love’s sweet sake? We rightly praise Ruth’s vow, but we should not forget Naomi’s unselfish pleading to be left to tread her weary path alone. A. M. — She had lived in a heathen country so devoutly, that Ruth could say, “Thy God shall be my God” — a beautiful testimony to Naomi’s fidelity, to her victory over idolatrous usages, to her own personal influence over others. She has had a battle of life to fight, and she has fought it well. How brave and noble and faithful a woman she is! W. M. S.

22. Barley Harvest.** This phrase illustrates a common method of marking time in the East; not very definite, indeed, but sufficiently so for all practical purposes. It was in April or May; and that was the most favorable time for Naomi with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, to make the journey from the land of Moab, whence Bethlehem was in sight, across the Jordan valley, and up again into the hills of Judea. Everywhere there were flowers; the air was mild, and earth and sky were beautiful, — it was glorious springtime in the home of her childhood. Merrill.

2:2, 3. Glean after him in whose sight I shall find grace. She knows not which way to go nor whom to inquire for, but will trust Providence to raise her up some friend or other that will be kind to her. Let us always keep up good thoughts of the Divine Providence, and believe that while we do well it will do well for us. And it did well for Ruth; for when she went out alone, without guide or companion, to glean, her hap was to light on the field of Boaz. To her it seemed casual, she knew not whose field it was, nor had she any reason for going to that more than any other, and therefore it is said to be her hap; but Providence directed her steps to this field. H.

It was the same Divine “hap” by which sleep fled from Ahasuerus on that decisive night; the same “hap” by which so often, what to the careless onlooker seems a chance “occurrence,” is sent to us from God directly. A. E. — “Her hap” determined her marriage, her wealth, her happiness and that of her mother-in-law, her union with Israel, her motherhood, her position as an ancestress of David and of Christ. In such seemingly insignificant causes originate the most momentous issues. Therefore regard nothing as insignificant. Look out for and follow the leadings of Divine Providence. “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” J. R. T.

That Divine hand leads Ruth blindfold to the field of Boaz. Now God begins to repay into her bosom her love and duty to her mother-in-law. Reverence and loving respects to parents never yet went away uncrompened: God will surely raise up friends among strangers to those that have been faithful at home. Bp. H.

4. Usages described in the Book of Ruth are such as we should expect to find in a people living under a law like that in the books ascribed to Moses. The Lord, Jehovah, is the name by which men speak of God as their Protector (1:9; 2:12). The law which allowed the right of the gleaner in the time of harvest is assumed and acted on. The state of society depicted is one in which laborers and landowners are not yet divided, but lived in friendly intimacy, greeting one another with devout benedictions. It is not the least value of the book that it brings before us the ideal of village life contemplated by the law as at least approximately attained. E. H. P.

Boaz comes to his reapers with a blessing in his mouth: “The Lord be with you,” as one that knew if he were with them, and not the Lord, his presence could avail nothing. All the business of the family speeds the better for the master’s benediction. Bp. H. — The benediction of Boaz awakens a corresponding benediction from the reapers. Men are to us very much what we are to them. Confidence begets confidence. Blessing awakens blessing. This is what we long and pray for—cessation of war between capital and labor, and mutual benediction. W. M. S.—Boaz set an example of piety to his servants which could hardly fail to produce a favorable impression on their minds. Some are content to get work out of their servants: they take no interest in their souls—no more than if, like the cattle they tend, they had no souls at all. Unlike these, Boaz spoke to his servants as a God-fearing man. This appears in the warnings and kind instructions he gave, both to them and to Ruth. Guthrie.

8,9. Though a stranger to her personally, the story of Ruth was well known to Boaz. Seen in the light of her then conduct and bearing, its spiritual meaning and her motives would at once become luminous to Boaz. For such a man to know, was to do what God willed. Ruth was an Israelite indeed, brave, true, and noble. She must not go to any other field than his; she must not be treated like ordinary gleaners, but remain there, where he had spoken to her, “by the maidens.” A. E.

12. Boaz knew—and we know—better than Ruth herself did, that from the moment she had cast her world behind her back and thrown herself in simple trust upon God, his blessing surrounded her and overshadowed her, and would not fail to be manifested in due time. They that honor Him, he would honor. And she had honored him by her faith, and He was bound by all his covenants of mercy to honor her before men and angels. Kit.—Boaz knew what she had done for man, and what she had given up for God. Hers, as he now assured her, would be recompense for the one, and a full reward of the other, and that from Jehovah, the God of Israel, under whose wings she had come to trust. And now for the first time, and when it is past, the secret of her long-hidden sorrow bursts from Ruth, as she tells it to Boaz: “Thou hast consoled me, and spoken to the heart of thine handmaid.” A. E.

15,16. It was a thoughtful and delicate form of kindness to Ruth, thus to increase her gleanings, and yet to make them appear the fruit of her own industry. Thomson.

17,18. Her corn, when threshed out, formed no less than “about an ephah of barley”—being not much less than a bushel. Such produce of one woman’s gleaning for one day excited the surprise of Naomi when her daughter-in-law brought home the rich produce of her day’s labor. But Ruth had been specially favored through the attention of Boaz, who had privately instructed the reapers to let fall some of the handfuls, and leave them on purpose that she might glean them; and to suffer her to glean even among the sheaves without rebuke. This custom of beating out the corn upon the harvest-field still subsists in Palestine. Kit.

The way led us through open fields, where the people were in the midst of the wheat-harvest. The beautiful tracts of grain were full of reapers of the Henády Arabs, and also of gleaners almost as numerous. These were mostly women; and this department seemed almost as important as the reaping itself, since the latter is done in so slovenly a manner that not only much falls to the ground but many stalks remain uncut. In the season of harvest the grains of wheat, not yet fully dry and hard, are roasted in a pan or on an iron plate, and constitute a very palatable article of food. This is eaten with bread, or instead of it. The whole scene of the reapers and gleaners, and their “parched corn,” gave us a lively representation of the story of Ruth and the ancient harvest-time in the fields of Boaz. . . . We found the inhabitants of Huj still engaged in treading out the barley harvest. Several women were beating out with a stick handfuls of the grain which they seemed to have gleaned. One female was grinding with a handmill, turning the mill with one hand, and occasionally dropping in the grain with the other. Robinson.

20. Ruth returns home with her ephah of barley; and thankfully magnifies the liberality of Boaz, her new benefactor: Naomi repays his beneficence with her blessing; “Blessed be he of the Lord.” If the rich can exchange their alms with the poor for blessings, they have no cause to complain of an ill-bargain. Our gifts cannot be worth their faithful prayers: therefore it is better to give than receive; because he that receives, hath but a worthless alms; he that gives, receives an invaluable blessing. Bp. H.—The first feeling that sprang up in the heart of Naomi at the mention of the name of Boaz was one of adoration. The next was a generous desire in reference to Boaz himself. She prayed that he might be graciously recompensed by Jehovah for the kindness he had shown that day, both toward the living—Ruth and herself—and toward the deceased—Elimelech and his sons. After giving scope to her feelings of adoration and benediction, Naomi, with the prompt and practical directness of a true woman, said to her daughter-in-law, The man is near to us, he is one of our peculiar kinsmen (our Goëlim). She meant that he was one of those peculiarly near kinsmen who had a right of redemption over whatever lands may have formerly belonged to her and the first right of purchase over whatever lands might yet remain in the possession of herself or of her daughter-in-law. Naomi and Ruth, though greatly reduced in circumstances, and painfully pent up in present straits, were far from being paupers. They were proprietors; but their property was not, for the time being, avail- able for income or sustenance. It had either been farmed out or allowed to lie waste. Morison.

RUTH’S CLAIM RECOGNIZED BY BOAZ. CEREMONY OF TRANSFERRING THE RIGHT OF REDEMPTION. MARRIAGE OF BOAZ AND RUTH. NAOMI’S JOY IN THE SON BORN. ANCESTRAL LINEAGE OF DAVID.