Ruth 2:17-23

17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.^[a]

18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.

19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

20 “The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.^[b] ”

21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’ ”

22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth 2:17-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO RUTH 2

In this chapter we have an account of Ruth's gleaning corn in the fields of Boaz, a relation of Naomi, Ru 2:1-3, and of Boaz coming to his reapers, whom he saluted in a very kind manner; and observing a woman gleaning after them, inquired of them who she was, and they informed him, Ru 2:4-9, upon which he addressed himself to her, and gave her leave to glean in his field, and desired her to go nowhere else, and bid her eat and drink with his servants, Ru 2:8-14 and gave directions to his servants to let her glean, and to let fall some of the handfuls on purpose, that she might gather them up, Ru 2:15-17 and then an account is given of her returning to her mother-in-law with her gleanings, to whom she related where she had gleaned, who was owner of the field, and what he had said to her, upon which Naomi gave her advice, Ru 2:18-23.

Cross References

• 1. S Judges 6:11
• 2. S Leviticus 19:36
• 3. ver 14
• 4. S ver 10; Psalms 41:1
• 5. S Judges 17:2; S 1 Samuel 23:21
• 6. S Genesis 11:31
• 7. S Genesis 19:19; Ruth 3:10; 2 Samuel 2:5; Proverbs 17:17
• 8. S Leviticus 25:25
• 9. Ruth 3:9,12; Ruth 4:1,14
• 10. S Ruth 1:22
• 11. S Exodus 9:31
• 12. S Genesis 30:14; S 1 Samuel 6:13; Deuteronomy 16:9

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, probably about 30 pounds or about 13 kilograms
• [b]. The Hebrew word for "guardian-redeemer" is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55).