Ruth 3:2

2 And now, is there not Boaz, our relation, with whose young women you were? See, tonight he is separating the grain from the waste in his grain-floor.

Ruth 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 3:2

And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou
wast?
&c.] He was, and her question supposes and concludes it, and which she observes, that Ruth might take notice of it, and encouragement from it; and the rather, since she had been admitted into the company and conversation of his maidens; and which was more, though not mentioned, into the company and conversation of himself, and whom Ruth knew full well; and who being, Naomi thought, the next nearest kinsman, and obliged by the law in ( Deuteronomy 25:5 ) to marry Ruth, with which view his relation is mentioned:

behold, he winnoweth barley tonight in the threshingfloor;
which afforded a fit opportunity of meeting with him, being at night, and out of the city, from his own house, and alone, and after a feast for his reapers and threshers of corn, seems, from ( Ruth 2:7 ) as it was usual to have threshingfloors in an open place without the city, so to winnow at them, whereby the chaff was more easily separated from the corn, and that, in the evening, when in those countries there were the strongest breezes of wind to carry it off; hence the Targum here has it,

``behold, he is winnowing the barley floor with the wind, which is in the night.''

For before the invention and use of fans in winnowing, it was only done by the wind carrying off the chaff, as the oxen trod the corn, for it was done in the threshingfloor, as here: hence Hesiod ^F13 advises that the threshingfloors should be (cwrw en euaei) , in a place exposed to wind; and so Varro ^F14 observes, the floor should be in the higher part of the field, that the wind might blow through it; to this manner of winnowing Virgil ^F15 has respect. Nor was it unusual for great personages, owners of farms and fields, to attend and overlook such service. Pliny ^F16 reports, that Sextus Pomponius, father of the praetor and prince of the hither Spain, presided over the winnowing of his reapers; so Gideon, another judge Israel, was found threshing wheat, ( Judges 6:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Opera & Dies, l. 2. ver. 221.
F14 De re Rustica, l. 1. c. 41.
F15 "Cum graviter tunsis" Georgic. l. 3. Vid. Homer. Iliad 5. ver. 499. & Iliad, 13. ver. 588
F16 Nat. Hist. l. 22. c. 25.

Ruth 3:2 In-Context

1 And Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, am I not to get you a resting-place where you may be in comfort?

2 And now, is there not Boaz, our relation, with whose young women you were? See, tonight he is separating the grain from the waste in his grain-floor.

3 So take a bath, and, after rubbing your body with sweet oil, put on your best robe, and go down to the grain-floor; but do not let him see you till he has come to the end of his meal.

4 But see to it, when he goes to rest, that you take note of the place where he is sleeping, and go in there, and, uncovering his feet, take your place by him; and he will say what you are to do.

5 And she said, I will do all you say.