Ruth 2
2:1-3 The practice of gleaning allowed the poor to go through the fields after the harvesters, picking up the grain that was left behind, along with the grain that landowners were required to leave at the edges of their fields (Lv 19:9-10). The phrase translated man of noble character could designate Boaz as possessing wealth and property, but it becomes clear as the story unfolds that Boaz is also a man of integrity. The family connection was unknown to Ruth. Humanly speaking, she just happened to end up gleaning in his field; but there are no coincidences in God’s program, and this divine appointment proved that the Lord was not against Naomi, as she thought (1:20-21).
2:4-7 Boaz’s noble character was displayed in his care for his workers. Even his greeting to them was in the name of the Lord, and he knew them well enough to recognize a stranger in their midst. His question did not seek Ruth’s name but her relationships: Whose young woman is this? The servant’s answer twice highlighted her foreignness. He also offered an unsolicited testimony to her diligent hard work in the hot sun.
2:8-10 Boaz’s noble character is again on display in his kind words to Ruth. Gleaning could be dangerous, especially for a young foreign woman; thus, Boaz issued instructions to ensure her safety. He also allowed her to drink the water his young men had brought, saving her the lengthy trip to the well. Ruth’s response was to prostrate herself as a mark of respect for a social superior. As a Moabitess, she could easily have been ignored by Boaz, but he had noticed her and shown kindness to her.
2:11-13 The death of a husband exhausted a daughter-in-law’s obligations, as Naomi herself had made clear (1:11). Yet Ruth had remained with Naomi, leaving her own land and people, which meant entrusting her future to the favor of what she would perceive as the deity of the new land. Boaz asked the Lord, the God of Israel, to reward Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi and to shelter her under his protecting wings, as a mother bird shelters her young. Ruth responded with an expression of thanks for Boaz’s kind and encouraging words to her, even though she had no claim on him, not even that of a maidservant in his employment.
2:14-16 As an impoverished gleaner, Ruth would normally have had little or nothing to eat while out in the fields. Boaz, however, invited her to eat with him and his harvesters. In contrast to Naomi’s declaration in 1:21 that she went out full and came back empty, Ruth went out empty and came back full. There is no hint of romantic interest in Boaz’s actions. He was simply demonstrating his compassion and generosity to Ruth who, even though an alien, was linked to him through Naomi. He went so far as to instruct his harvesters deliberately to leave some grain for her to pick up, an action that went far beyond the demands of the law of Moses.
2:17-20 The measure of Boaz’s generosity and Ruth’s hard work is demonstrated in the remarkable quantity of grain that she gathered—an ephah (about twenty-six quarts) of barley. This was enough grain to feed a working man for several weeks. Boaz’s generosity was evidence for Naomi that the Lord has not abandoned his kindness to the living or the dead. This represents a change in Naomi’s attitude toward the Lord from 1:21. The judgment that the family had experienced was not his final word for them.
Family redeemers (Hb go’el; v. 20) were relatives obliged to buy back family members from debt-slavery or to redeem their fields if they had to sell them (Lv 25:25-30). The family redeemer would also receive restitution on behalf of a deceased family member or pursue his killer to ensure that justice was served (Nm 5:8; 35:12). He might also raise up a child for the deceased relative in order to maintain the connection between the clan and the relative’s hereditary property (Dt 25:5-10), though Boaz had no legal obligation to act in this way.
2:21-23 Naomi’s approval of Boaz’s invitation for Ruth to remain until the end of the harvest demonstrates a concern for Ruth’s safety not evident in v. 2. However, the concern may also reflect Naomi’s growing awareness of her own culpability in the fate of her own family. Her earlier journey to the fields of Moab was an attempt to glean food “in another field” instead of seeking refuge under the wings of the Lord as she should have done. Boaz’s generosity may have provided food, but Ruth’s need of a home with a husband of her own is still real.
