Ruth 2:5

5 Boaz asked his young servant who was foreman over the farm hands, "Who is this young woman? Where did she come from?"

Ruth 2:5 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 2:5

Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers,
&c.] To direct them their work, what part each was to do, and to see that they did it well; to take care for provisions for them, and to pay them their wages when their work was done. Josephus ^F20 calls him (agrokomov) , that had the care of the field, and all things relative to it; the Jews ^F21 say, he was set over two and forty persons, whom he had the command of:

whose damsel is this?
to whom does she belong? of what family is she? whose daughter is she? or whose wife? for he thought, as Aben Ezra notes, that she was another man's wife; the Targum is, of what nation is she? perhaps her dress might be somewhat different from that of the Israelitish women.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 2.
F21 Midrash Ruth, fol. 32. 1.

Ruth 2:5 In-Context

3 And so she set out. She went and started gleaning in a field, following in the wake of the harvesters. Eventually she ended up in the part of the field owned by Boaz, her father-in-law Elimelech's relative.

4 A little later Boaz came out from Bethlehem, greeting his harvesters, "God be with you!" They replied, "And God bless you!"

5 Boaz asked his young servant who was foreman over the farm hands, "Who is this young woman? Where did she come from?"

6 The foreman said, "Why, that's the Moabite girl, the one who came with Naomi from the country of Moab.

7 She asked permission. 'Let me glean,' she said, 'and gather among the sheaves following after your harvesters.' She's been at it steady ever since, from early morning until now, without so much as a break."