Ruth gets up from lunch in order to continue gleaning, Boaz takes his protective generosity to the next level by telling his workers to give her even more grain than she could possibly gather by gleaning. And, so, Ruth works until evening and ends up with a large amount of grain, which she then carries back to town. The sheer quantity of that grain, in addition to what was left over from Ruth’s lunch with Boaz, impresses Naomi, who asks Ruth where she worked that day and, before even hearing Ruth’s reply, offers a blessing on the person who was so generous to her.
Ruth explains that she worked with a man named Boaz. Naomi responds by blessing the Lord for his kindness to the living and the dead, a statement that Naomi immediately clarifies by explaining that Boaz is a relative of hers and thus qualifies as one of their redeeming kinsmen. This is an allusion to Leviticus 25:25, which reads: “If your kinsman is in straits and has to sell part of his holding, his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his kinsman has sold.” It is also a reference to levirate marriage as spelled out in Deuteronomy 25:5—6, which reads: “When brothers dwell together and one of them dies, the wife of the deceased shall not be married to a stranger, outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall unite with her: he shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s (redeemer’s) duty. The first son that she bears shall be accounted to the dead brother, so that his name may not be blotted out in Israel.” In other words, Boaz, as a kinsman of Elimelech, is one of those close male relatives who have a sacred legal responsibility to rescue Elimelech’s name from oblivion by marrying Elimelech’s widow, keeping ownership of Elimelech’s land in the family, and fathering a son for Elimelech.
Ruth confirms the correctness of Naomi’s impressions about Boaz by saying that he even told her to stay close to his workers throughout the harvest, a fact that both women interpret as a sign of Boaz’s growing interest in and feeling of responsibility toward Ruth, who will take Naomi’s place in this levirate marriage since Naomi is already too old.
Naomi encourages Ruth to follow Boaz’s advice. So, then, Ruth gleans in Boaz’s fields until the end of the barley harvest, after which she stays at home with her mother-in-law. Thus, everything is going according to plan, but the problem is that Boaz has not taken any further steps in Ruth’s direction; he has yet to commit. Even though Boaz is an exemplary religious Jew, he still needs to be urged and prompted if the action of this divine plan is going to proceed.
Ruth: Chapter 3
Naomi now thinks of a way to push Boaz into making a commitment. She tells Ruth to bathe, dress up, and go down that very night to the threshing floor, where Boaz will be winnowing barley. When he has finished eating and drinking and has lain down to sleep, Ruth should uncover his feet and lie at the foot of his bed, at which point Boaz will tell Ruth what to do. Ruth promises to do as she is told.
Everything happens just as Naomi has instructed, so that in the middle of the night Boaz awakens to discover a woman lying at his feet. “Who are you?” he asks. Her response is bold and direct: “I am your handmaid Ruth.” Note that she is no longer “not so much as one” of his maidservants; now she is most definitely his handmaid. Since Boaz has been so slow in taking the initiative, Ruth has had to take it for him and promote herself to handmaid. She then goes on to say, in a tone of voice that one may assume leaves little room for Boaz to hesitate or disagree, “Spread your robe over your handmaid, for you are a redeeming kinsman.” Spreading his robe over her would be the official sign of his agreeing to marry her, and marrying her, she implicitly reminds him, is his sacred responsibility as a redeeming kinsman. Thus, Boaz gets pushed into action.
Because Boaz is a generation older than Ruth, this scene does not have all the sexual tension it would have if Boaz were a vigorous young man. In fact, Boaz exclaims, “Be blessed of the Lord, daughter! Your latest deed of loyalty is greater than the first, in that you have not turned to younger men, whether rich or poor.” What Boaz means, apart from simply thinking of Ruth as his daughter, is that Ruth was loyal to Naomi once by staying with her and gleaning for her and then a second time by seeking—not a young lover such as a young woman like Ruth might prefer—but an older man who could rescue Naomi and redeem Elimelech’s name.
In this story, Boaz has experienced quite a remarkable journey. In his very first encounter with Ruth, he is greatly impressed with her hard work and her devotion to her mother-in-law, and, since both women are defenseless widows, he feels a strong religious obligation to help them, especially Ruth, who is also a resident alien. Ruth, for her part, displays personal qualities that would be striking in any girl but that in a Moabite are preternatural and suggest divine inspiration. Boaz has warm fatherly feelings toward Ruth and is also moved by her genuine humility and loyalty and by her courageous decision to leave Moab and come to a place she did not know. He senses that God is at work through Ruth, but he is not yet sure exactly what his own role is in this divine-human drama. But Boaz finds at least one action to be immediately appropriate: to ask God to bless Ruth. And, so, Boaz does.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
