Ruth 2:18

18 She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.

Ruth 2:18 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 2:18

And she took it up
The ephah of barley, into her arms, or on her shoulders:

and went into the city;
the city of Bethlehem;

and her mother in law saw what she had gleaned:
she set it down before her, and she looked at it with admiration, that she should glean so much in one day:

and she brought forth;
not Naomi, as Josephus ^F11 represents it, who understood it as if she brought forth some food her neighbours had brought her, part of which she kept for Ruth, though he takes it in the other sense also; but the meaning is, that Ruth brought forth out of a scrip, as the Targum adds; besides the ephah of barley she set before her, she brought some victuals out of a bag:

and gave to her, that she had reserved after she was sufficed;
not that she ate of the barley, and her mother-in-law also; and then she gave her the rest to lay up against another time, as some interpret it; but the remainder of the food which Boaz gave her at dinner time, which she could not eat, ( Ruth 2:14 ) she reserved for her mother, and now gave it to her; an instance of that piety commended by the apostle, ( 1 Timothy 5:4 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Antiqu l. 5. c. 9. sect. 2.

Ruth 2:18 In-Context

16 Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.”

17 So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley.

18 She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.

19 Then her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? Blessed be the man who noticed you.” So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers. ”