Ruth 2:13

13 Then she said, "You are most gracious to me, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants."

Ruth 2:13 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 2:13

Then she said, let me find favour in thy sight, my lord
Or rather, since she had found favour in his sight already: the words are to be considered, not as a wish for it, but as acknowledging it, and expressing her faith and confidence, that she should for time to come find favour in his sight, and have other instances of it; for so the words may be rendered, "I shall find favour" ^F26, for which she gives the following reasons:

for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly
unto thine handmaid;
had spoken in her commendation, and wished her all happiness here and hereafter; said kind and comfortable words to her, to her very heart, as in ( Isaiah 40:2 ) which were cheering, refreshing, and reviving to her:

though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens;
not worthy to be one of them, or to be ranked with them, being meaner than the meanest of them, a poor widow, and a Moabitish woman; the Septuagint and Syriac versions leave out the negative particle, and read, "I shall be as one of thine handmaids".

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Nx auma) "inveniam gratiam", Pagninus, Montanus.

Ruth 2:13 In-Context

11 But Bo'az answered her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.

12 The LORD recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!"

13 Then she said, "You are most gracious to me, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants."

14 And at mealtime Bo'az said to her, "Come here, and eat some bread, and dip your morsel in the wine." So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her parched grain; and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.

15 When she rose to glean, Bo'az instructed his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.