Ruth 2:7

7 She said, 'Please let me gather grain. I will only gather among the bundles behind the reapers.' So she came here and has been on her feet from daybreak until now. She just sat down this minute 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 Boaz asked the young man in charge of his reapers, "Who is this young woman?"

6 The young man answered, "She's a young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

7 She said, 'Please let me gather grain. I will only gather among the bundles behind the reapers.' So she came here and has been on her feet from daybreak until now. She just sat down this minute in the shelter."

8 Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter. Don't go in any other field to gather grain, and don't even leave this one. Stay here with my young women.

9 Watch where my men are reaping, and follow the young women in that field. I have ordered my young men not to touch you. When you're thirsty, go to the jars and drink some of the water that the young men have drawn."