Ruth 2:15

15 Ruth got up to pick up more grain. Then Boaz gave orders to his men. He said, "Suppose she takes some stalks from what the women have tied up. If she does, don't make her look bad.

Ruth 2:15 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 2:15

And when she was risen up to glean
After she had ate sufficiently, and refreshed herself, she rose up from her seat to go into the field and glean again; which shows her industry:

Boaz commanded his young men;
the reapers, or who gathered the handfuls, and bound them up in sheaves:

saying, let her glean even among the sheaves;
this she had requested of the reapers when she first came into the field, and it was granted her, ( Ruth 2:7 ) but this, as it was granted by Boaz himself, so was still a greater favour; and there is some difference in the expression, for it may be rendered here, "among those sheaves" ^F8, pointing to a particular spot where might be the best ears of corn, and where more of them had fallen:

and reproach her not;
as not with her being a poor woman, a widow, a Moabitish woman, so neither with being a thief, or taking such corn she should not, or gleaning where she ought not.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (Myrmeh Nyb) "inter ipsos manipulos", Tigurine version, Rambachius.

Ruth 2:15 In-Context

13 "Sir, I hope you will continue to be kind to me," Ruth said. "You have comforted me. You have spoken kindly to me. And I'm not even as important as one of your female servants!"

14 When it was time to eat, Boaz spoke to Ruth again. "Come over here," he said. "Have some bread. Dip it in the wine vinegar." She sat down with the workers. Then Boaz offered her some grain that had been cooked. She ate all she wanted. She even had some left over.

15 Ruth got up to pick up more grain. Then Boaz gave orders to his men. He said, "Suppose she takes some stalks from what the women have tied up. If she does, don't make her look bad.

16 Instead, pull some stalks out for her. Leave them for her to pick up. Don't tell her she shouldn't do it."

17 So Ruth picked up grain in the field until evening. Then she separated the barley from the straw. It amounted to more than half a bushel.