Ruth 2:7

7 She said, 'Please, let me glean and gather what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.' So she went and has kept at it from morning until now, except for a little rest in the shelter."

Ruth 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 2:7

And she said
These are the words of the servant continued, who goes on with the account of Ruth, and her conduct, since she had been in the field:

I pray you let me glean, and gather after the reapers among the
sheaves:
for though by the law of Israel she had a right, as a poor widow and stranger, to glean, yet as the owner of the field, and his servants, by his appointment, under him, might have power of fixing the time when such might glean, and of judging who were the proper persons to be admitted, Ruth in her great modesty and meekness did not choose to enter on this work without leave:

so she came;
into the field and gleaned, having obtained leave:

and hath continued even from the morning until now;
had been very diligent and industrious in gathering up the loose ears of corn among the sheaves, as she followed the reapers cutting down and binding up the corn in sheaves; she began pretty early in the morning, and had stuck close to it till that time, which may be supposed to be about noon, or pretty near it, for as yet it was not mealtime, ( Ruth 2:14 ) . The Septuagint version is therefore very wrong, which reads

``from the morning until the evening,''

for that was not yet come, ( Ruth 2:17 ) but

she tarried a little in the house;
not that she went home to the city, and stayed a little in the house of Naomi her mother, and then returned again, for she went not home until the evening, ( Ruth 2:17 Ruth 2:18 ) , but the meaning of the passage is, that she had been constant and diligent in gleaning all the morning, only a very little time that she was in the house, which was in the field; either a farm house of Boaz adjoining to the field; or rather a cottage or booth, as Aben Ezra interprets it, which was in the field, whither the reapers betook themselves when they ate their meals; or to shelter themselves under the shade of it, as Abendana, from the heat of the sun at noonday; and here Ruth set herself down awhile for a little rest, and ease, and refreshment; and some think she was here when Boaz came, and therefore took the more notice of her.

Ruth 2:7 In-Context

5 Then Bo'az asked his servant supervising the reapers, "Whose girl is this?"

6 The servant supervising the reapers answered, "She's a girl from Mo'av who returned with Na'omi from the plain of Mo'av.

7 She said, 'Please, let me glean and gather what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.' So she went and has kept at it from morning until now, except for a little rest in the shelter."

8 Bo'az said to Rut, "Did you hear that, my daughter? Don't go to glean in another field, don't leave this place, but stick here with my working girls.

9 Keep your eyes on whichever field the reapers are working in, and follow the girls. I've ordered the young men not to bother you. Whenever you get thirsty, go and drink from the water jars the young men have filled."