Ruth: Lesson Five
Naomi Seeks Ruth’s Security (Ruth 2:17-3:5)
So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. She picked it up and came into the town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Then she took out and gave her what was left over after she herself had been satisfied. Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So 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.” Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.”a Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close by my servants, until they have finished all my harvest.’” Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, otherwise you might be bothered in another field.” So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-in-law.
Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you. Now here is our kinsman Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do.” She said to her, “All that you tell me I will do.”
Ruth, a childless widow and Moabite, boldly and courageously entered a field to glean from the harvest. Luckily (providentially), the field belonged to Boaz who, filled with the kindness of Yahweh, showed her kindness. He invited her to glean with the women of his employ, eat at his table, and protected her from those who might abuse her. Boaz, by the grace of Yahweh, blessed Ruth. While Ruth did not know Boaz and did not know it was his field, Boaz knew Ruth because he had heard about Ruth’s kindness to Naomi and Naomi was a relative of Boaz. As yet, however, Naomi knew nothing about this until that first evening when Ruth returned from gleaning in Boaz’s field.
Naomi Learns It Is Boaz’s Field
Ruth returned with a cooked meal (the leftovers of her meal with Boaz and his workers) and enough barely to last several months. An ephah is about a bushel of barley, which probably weighed around thirty pounds. This was a huge haul for a single day, and it represents a bountiful and blessed harvest for these two women. It is food security for the two widows as they can make bread and barter for other needs.
Naomi must have been shocked by Ruth’s production. It was, frankly, unbelievable. So, her question is a natural one, “Where do you glean?” Who would let you gather this much? Then she blesses the man who gave her permission to carry away so much of his produce without knowing who the person is. She, of course, assumes a man owns the field, and it is evident to her that the owner showed Ruth a great kindness.
This bounty and Naomi’s blessing is a startling turn of events. Naomi stands at the center of the story at this point. The one who wanted to be called Mara (bitter) because Yahweh had forsaken her is now, blessing the man in the name of Yahweh who showed Ruth kindness. While the tragic circumstances still remain (she is a widow), the bitterness is receding and blessing is on her lips.
And then she learns it is Boaz, her relative. Then another blessing rises from her lips. Boaz represents hope, a hope provided by Yahweh who providentially directed Ruth to the field of Boaz. Naomi recognizes this through her blessing. It was not chance or lucky but the work of Yahweh who has not forsaken Naomi or her family.
The theological significance of her blessing is weighty. (1) Naomi blesses Boaz by the presence of Yahweh. (2) Boaz reflects the hesed (kindness) of Yahweh’s own life. (3) Yahweh has not forsaken the “living or the dead”—Yahweh still honors their husbands as well as themselves through this bounty. (4) Boaz is a near kinsman who has an opportunity to provide Ruth (and her) with rest and security. That is a mouthful.
Ruth adds that Boaz has also invited her to glean in his field with his workers until the end of the harvest. Naomi accepts this graciousness. Boaz’s field is safe for Ruth while another might be dangerous. Consequently, in safety and prosperity, Ruth worked in the fields of Boaz with his female gleaners until the end of the harvest, which is typically about seven weeks long.
The theology here is rich. Once exiled (we might say), Naomi has returned with Ruth the Moabitess to find rest and security in the fields of Boaz. This is the work of Yahweh, who has shown God’s own hesed through the hesed of one of Yahweh’s servants, Boaz. Naomi experiences the move from bitterness to joy, from forsakenness to blessedness, through Boaz’s faithfulness to Yahweh. I wonder if Naomi is now on the verge of saying, “no longer call me Mara.” She has hope. This is a turning point in the book as we move from despair to hope in anticipation of rest and security.
However, that rest (pleasantness, the meaning of Naomi’s name) is not yet secured in a permanent way. With the ending of the harvest, what will Naomi and Ruth do now? How can they secure a future in Bethlehem?
Naomi Counsels Ruth
Despite Boaz’s hesed and Ruth’s hard work which produced so much bounty for the two widows, the harvest is coming to an end. The two widows lack long-term security. They do not yet have “rest,” which is a word that describes security and perhaps even prosperity in this context. Naomi recognizes she must be proactive in the securing that rest, a rest for which she prayed for Yahweh to provide for her daughters-in-law in Ruth 1:9.
Boaz is that potential security because he is a kinsman who has the right to marry Ruth and secure her first husband’s lineage and inheritance (see Deuteronomy 25:5-10). He has the capacity to redeem Naomi’s family. A kinsmen redeemer is one who acts on behalf of another in the family, whether brother or cousin, to secure the family’s inheritance or retrieve lost land and property. This arrangement is important for the carrying forward of the family lineage through male heirs. In this case, Naomi recognizes that Boaz can marry Ruth, and thus she emphasizes that he is “our kinsmen.”
Naomi’s plan is proactive and bold. Ruth should bathe herself, anoint herself (with perfume), and put on her best clothes. Some describe these actions as a prelude to Ruth’s prostitution of herself, preparing her for a sexual encounter. Ruth, then, is to seduce Boaz and secure terms with her kinsmen redeemer. However, it is better to regard this as a shift in Ruth’s status as a woman. These actions lay aside mournful clothing; she is no longer a mourner. The time of her grief has ended, and now she is available for marriage (see Ezekiel 16:9-10). We might image that Ruth still dressed as a widow, even as she gleaned in Boaz’s fields. Once, however, she appears before Boaz in changed clothing, he will see her with different eyes as one available for marriage.
And this is the next step of Naomi’s plan. Once Boaz and the men had finished eating and drinking at the threshing floor, Ruth should approach him quietly and “uncover his feet and lie down.”
This is probably the most controversial statement in the whole book of Ruth. What does it mean to “uncover his feet”? It is not as innocent as awakening him from his sleep because his feet got cold. Rather, “uncovering the feet” may be a euphemism for uncovering the nakedness of genitalia (like “uncovering the skirt” in Deuteronomy 27:20). In other words, she may have exposed his genitals. Or, it might be that uncovering his literal feet (perhaps his calf/thigh area) and lying down next to them was an invitation to marriage. Either way, this is a bold move, and it has sexual overtones (just as all the women in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 have some kind of sexual backdrop as well: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and—probably—the rumors that must have surrounded Mary).
This does not necessarily mean it was an invitation to a sexual encounter on that night or that she was seducing him for sex that evening. Given the character of both Boaz and Ruth in the story where honor is an important theme, the metaphor probably only means that this act was a way of proposing marriage (but more on this in the next post). Dressed as an available woman, she made herself available for marriage to Boaz. There was no sexual relations that night as we will see from the next movement in the book of Ruth.
She did this in secret (at night, while Boaz and others were sleeping) so as not to humiliate Boaz as a kinsman (see Deuteronomy 25:9). She is reminding him that he has a kinsman redeemer obligation to fulfill. She did not do this publicly but in private, and her approach is overt and pointed. In effect, she is saying “will you marry me, and fulfill your obligation to your kin?”
At least, that is Naomi’s plan. And Ruth committed to following the plan. In the next section of Ruth, we will see how this played out and whether the plan was successful or not.