Ruth 3

9. I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman--She had already drawn part of the mantle over her; and she asked him now to do it, that the act might become his own. To spread a skirt over one is, in the East, a symbolical action denoting protection. To this day in many parts of the East, to say of anyone that he put his skirt over a woman, is synonymous with saying that he married her; and at all the marriages of the modern Jews and Hindus, one part of the ceremony is for the bridegroom to put a silken or cotton cloak around his bride.

15. Bring the veil that thou hast upon thee, and hold it--Eastern veils are large sheets--those of ladies being of red silk; but the poorer or common class of women wear them of blue, or blue and white striped linen or cotton. They are wrapped round the head, so as to conceal the whole face except one eye.

17. six measures of barley--Hebrew, "six seahs," a seah contained about two gallons and a half, six of which must have been rather a heavy load for a woman.