Ruth 2:18

18 She took the grain back into town and showed her mother-in-law how much she had gathered. She also gave her the food left over from the meal.

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

17 So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening, and when she had beaten it out, she found she had nearly twenty-five pounds.

18 She took the grain back into town and showed her mother-in-law how much she had gathered. She also gave her the food left over from the meal.

19 Naomi asked her, "Where did you gather all this grain today? Whose field have you been working in? May God bless the man who took an interest in you!" So Ruth told Naomi that she had been working in a field belonging to a man named Boaz.

20 "May the Lord bless Boaz!" Naomi exclaimed. "The Lord always keeps his promises to the living and the dead." And she went on, "That man is a close relative of ours, one of those responsible for taking care of us."