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The Book

of

RUTH

(The last 4 chapters of Judges)

JUDGES CHAPTER 23

RUTH pt.2

Compiled by JS Lowther

So the Pleasant widow who has deemed her self Bitter, has returned to her home land in Bethlehem of Judah with her loyal and faithful daughter in law her Friend Ruth. Heavy emphasis has been placed upon the state of Ruth’s status as it pertains to her family have been removed Benjamin living in the land of Moab, in this section I wish to focus attention more on the function of the Torah, the Rule of Law, God’s Law on the life of these people. YHWH’s Law is a culture, no different than the culture America or any other group of people has today. Israel operated by God’s law as their mean Culture, that is that they had the letter of the Law as the standard, not necessarily the Spirit, some folks such as the prophets and other holy men and women loved the Law thereby having the Spirit of the Law which gives life, but as a norm the Torah was the Common Law, no different than the way our early American and British ancestors used there common Law, some of which came directly from the Bible, some of which was not. Yet in the time of Ruth we may see a functional Biblical Common Law, this detail of the story of Ruth is what makes her book special beside the amazing history and Spiritual wealth we have seen so far.

Rth_2:1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

Rth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.

Rth 2:3 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

Rth 2:4 And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.

Rth 2:5 Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this?

Rth 2:6 And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:

Rth 2:7 And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

Rth 2:8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

Rth 2:9 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.

The Law in operation in this section the story of Ruth and Naomi is

Deu_24:17 Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge:

Deu 24:18 But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

Deu 24:19 When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger H1616

for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

Deu 24:20 When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

Deu 24:21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

The Biblical Common Law was being followed out here perfectly, and due to the tightness of the society it was undoubted that the hap would fall that Ruth would glean a Kinsman’s field, yet this law is offering the right of privilege from two angles: It was the Right of Naomi to glean as a widow, and her widowhood would have been known to those who knew her, as well Ruth is a stranger that is a sojourner and she as a stranger has the right also to lawfully glean from the residue of the reapers. This is Biblically Realistic Welfare, and it is the only way to have a righteous system of Welfare one where the widow, fatherless and stranger are protected from starvation by imposing the blessing of God’s Law upon the field owner, which by course causes the poor to work for their entitled portion, rendering them diligent and not slothful. As we will see in the story of Ruth her hard work causes the wealthy man Boaz to want to help her more than the Law of God entitles her and Naomi to.

Rth_2:10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? H5237

In the prior Law in Deu_24:19 the word translated Stranger is the Noun use גּי / GuR H1616, it is synonymous with the Verb גּוּר / GUR H1481 which simply refers to the action of Sojourning, thus one who is Sojourning is a Sojourner and as such a stranger to those whose land he passes through. Yet in this verse the word הנכרי / NoKRY-Eh is used

This is a suffixed form of NoKRY ^H5237, and meaning H5235 specifically some thing distinct or noticeable, this root word is used in the word just prior in the same sentence, as most Hebrew stories are Poetic verse, this last portion of Ruth 2:10 rhymes in the Hebrew sense saying

להכירני^{H5234 that thou shouldest take knowledge} ואנכי^{H595 of me, seeing I} נכריה׃^{H5237 a stranger?}

LEh-KYRN-Y V-ANKY NoKRY-Eh

A more poetic and literal translation may expresses the point of the poetic verse in English a bit more if said like this: ‘How is it that in your eyes I find Grace, did not you notice to notice that I am noticeable?’, it could as well read to make the same point: ‘did you not distinguish to distinguish my distinctness?

The word NoKRY is also used to reference racial strangers or those who are racially distinguished or notice-able a midst a homogeneous population, being distinguish-able.

Admittedly this is why some who investigate the language of Ruth become convinced of the fact she is indeed a Racial stranger and / or a Moabite, while not considering that, Moab, the incestuous cousins of Isaac, bred by Lot and his daughter, most likely looked rather similar to an Israelite, unless by this time Moab had already mingled with darker races. As fore the evidence of language on how to understand this verse, this is not the only use of this Hebrew word here seen in Ruth 2:10 particularly, as the Hebrew spelling is NoKRY-Eh meaning notice-able or distinct-ness. And is otherwise understood as by considering another in English verse which uses the same exact Hebrew spelling as seen in Ruth 2:10:

Isa 28:21 For the LORD shall …bring to pass his act, his strange (נכריה^H5237) act.

This statement is obviously not referencing a Racial or Ethnic stranger, but a distinct or noticeable action, just as Ruth was pointing out about her self in the context.

As well the root word NoKR spelled in the negative tense LEh-KYRN-Y, can be seen in the most related way in the Hebrew Scripture in

Deu_33:9 Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge (LA-KYR) his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.

Thus, I believe it is safely established that this phrase in Ruth 2:10 is not referencing Ruth’s physiognomy of race or ethnicity. Rather the opposite point is being made in Ruth’s question: Why Did Boaz not distinguish to distinguish Ruth’s distinctness? His answer follows in the story…

Rth_2:11 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 knewest not heretofore.

Rth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

Rth_2:13 Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens. (Here the word handmaiden may be easily understood by comparing this status to that of Hagar, Bilha or Zilpah, as they are all SiPHE /שפחה ( H8198 ) a word which literally means ‘of Kin’ as the hand maidens were often relatives particularly to the wife of a husband or even perhaps a more distant relative.)

Rth 2:14 And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.

Rth_2:15 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:

Rth 2:16 And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

Rth 2:17 So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.

Rth 2:18 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 reserved after she was sufficed.

Rth_2:19 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. (Here we see a related word to our prior word NoKRY it is M-KYRN)

And she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man’s name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz.

Rth_2:20 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 near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen ( literally the word translated kinsman is identical with the word Redeemer / M-GAL-NU/מגאלנו. it always implies kinship )

This is the first mention of the law of the kinsman redeemer

The law in mention:

Lev_25:25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

Rth 2:21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

Rth 2:22 And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field.

Rth 2:23 So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.

So here we end off speaking of the barley harvest which immediately is followed by the wheat harvest, and is celebrated at the time of Pentecost, which is called the feast of the first fruits of the wheat harvest. In line with our symbolism flush through out this story so far, do not let the calendaric biblical chronology go unnoticed, as we consider the Spiritual view of YHWH’s redemption of his removed people Israel, the Gentiles, by the blood of his own son who is as well the Son of Boaz of Bethlehem, the son of David our kinsman redeemer and KING!

A better understanding of the Stranger:

While on this subject consider the Greek word Xenos which is the stranger in the LXX in verse 10 David says this is his state due to his Zeal for YHWH

Psa 69:8 I became strange to my brethren, and a stranger to my mother’s children. In the Hebrew we see our prior word NoKRY, but in the Greek the word Xenos ^G3581

^{As well the verb use of this word may be seen in} 1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: Here a form of Xenos is seen as well, it is then evident that Xenos has very little to due with Race or Ethnicity, while differences of one people to another may be ‘strange’, such as Ruth being raised as distinct from the commonwealth and Law of Israel, she was Xenos to those who distinguished her as a stranger.

We may thus see a holistic application of this same transition Boaz is recognizing in Ruth, as it speaks of the Gentile Israelites of Ephesus:

Eph_2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

Eph_2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers ^{G3581 Xenos} from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

Rth 2:14 And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.

In keeping with the removed Xenos status of Ruth’s family, and thus being a stranger to YHWH’s covenant as a woman born to removed Gentile parents, the neatly tied reconciliation process my as well be seen as being offered by this great grand father of our Savior Jesus Christ!