And she went down to the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law had bidden her.
Naomi has told Ruth what to do, and the story turns on one line: Ruth went and did it. Her whole claim on Boaz as redeemer rests on that quiet act of obedience at the threshing floor.
Naomi had asked whether she should seek rest for Ruth. One writer ties Ruth's obedience to the love behind that command:
Naomi commands, but her orders are in no way irksome, for they are the commandments of love. "My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?" She gives her directions for her beloved Ruth's well-being. She also gives them because she knows the heart of Boaz. Ruth, the woman of faith, obeys: "She… did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her." May we obey in the same way. Obedience is easy to those who know that God loves them and desires only their rest and well-being. But obedience becomes difficult when the soul aims to satisfy itself and to find happiness outside of Christ.
The scene is less strange than it sounds:
Winnowing means separating the grain from the chaff after the threshing. People usually did it in the evening. The winds that carried away the light grain-husks sprang up at that time of day. The winnowed grain had to be guarded from thieves, who love darkness rather than light. So the owner himself would sleep in the open on the threshing floor, in his usual clothes, with a cloak over his feet for extra covering. It seems to have been common knowledge in Bethlehem that Boaz would follow this practice that night.
Even the phrase "went down" has a reason behind it:
Bethlehem stood on a hill, with the cornfields in the valleys and on the slopes. So Ruth "went down" from Naomi's house to the threshing floor. And Boaz "went up" from the threshing floor to the gate of Bethlehem.
What Ruth does at the feet of Boaz is not improvised romance. It rests on two provisions in Israel's law. The commentator explains the second:
The other law concerned a man of Israel who had died without children (Deut. 25:5-12). His brother was to marry the wife of the man who had died, to raise up children for him. The word "brother" was used for any close male relative. Ruth's husband was an Israelite, and he had died. So Ruth, though a Gentile, could be brought into the congregation through a relative who had the right of redemption. Ruth did as Naomi told her, and so lay down at the feet of Boaz. This is a picture of the godly remnant of Israel in the last days, as good as creeping to the feet of the Lord Jesus in total submission to Him, yet boldly claiming His protection.
Ruth's obedience was not safe. Everything depended on how Boaz would answer:
It was a bold stroke, and it would either succeed or fail shamefully. She would either leave the threshing floor with Boaz recognising her as the proper and honoured object of his affection. Or he would drive her from his feet, and she would carry the name of a bold and shameless woman ever after. Everything hung in the balance.
That risk is where faith shows itself. One writer sets chapter 2 and chapter 3 side by side:
It might have seemed bold to some; it was really a believing course, with love to Ruth also. But when God is with us, there is on one side the attractive grace of a pure way of life joined with reverence. On the other side there is the boldness of faith, and God blesses that just as remarkably. Ruth 2 shows us the one, as the third chapter does the other.
Naomi's whole aim was rest for Ruth:
Notice, it is the question of rest. "My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?" She is then seen resting at his feet. It is a blessed truth, which even Naomi realises, that rest can only be found at the feet of the redeemer. This truth is known to all His beloved people. He promises rest and He gives rest.
- Obeyed — Ruth did everything Naomi told her. Commentators call this the obedience of faith, and it came easily because the one who commanded her wanted her good.
- Grounded — her step was not reckless. It rested on Israel's laws of redemption and of marriage to a near relative (Deut. 25).
- Bold — the plan risked everything. Boaz would either honour her or disgrace her, and faith takes that risk.
- Lowly — she went down from the town to the floor, then lower still, to the feet of the man who had the right to redeem.
- Rested — the chapter's aim is rest. You will find it nowhere but at the feet of the Redeemer, who both promises rest and gives it.
And Boaz ate and drank, and his heart was merry, and he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn. Then she went softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid herself down.
A foreign widow slips onto a threshing floor at night. She lies down at the feet of the one man who can redeem her family's land. Commentators read the scene as village custom, and as a picture of how faith comes to Christ.
Boaz was not camping out by accident. Village custom explains what he was doing there.
Winnowing means separating the grain from the chaff after threshing. It usually happened in the evening, because the winds that blow the light husks away sprang up at that time of day. Thieves love darkness rather than light, so the owner himself normally slept out in the open on the threshing floor to guard the winnowed grain. He kept his ordinary clothes on, with a cloak over his feet for extra covering. Everyone in Bethlehem seems to have known that Boaz would do this that night.
That explains the verse's wording: a cloak lay over his feet, and Ruth lifted it.
Some have read this as drunkenness. One writer traces it to a good harvest instead.
At the close of the day, Boaz ate his food with a "merry" heart. That is, he had the "joy at the harvest" of Isaiah 9:3, because God had blessed his ploughing and sowing so richly. "Merry" does not, either here or in Luke 15:24, imply excessive partying.
Ruth was not improvising. Israel had two laws of redemption, and one writer explains the second.
The other law concerned a man of Israel who had died without children (Deuteronomy 25:5-12). His brother was to marry the wife of the deceased to raise up children for him. The word "brother" covered any close male relative. Ruth's husband had been an Israelite, and he had died. So although Ruth was a Gentile — not an Israelite herself — a relative with the right of redemption could bring her into the congregation. Ruth did as Naomi told her, and so lay down at the feet of Boaz. This is a picture of the godly few left in Israel in the last days. They as good as creep to the feet of the Lord Jesus, in total submission to Him, yet boldly claiming His protection.
The move could have gone wrong. Commentators see this chapter as a study in daring trust.
It might have seemed bold to some; it was really a believing course, with love to Ruth as well. When God is with us, there may be on one hand the attractive grace of pure behaviour joined with reverence; on the other hand there is also the boldness of faith, which God blesses just as remarkably. Chapter 2 shows us the one, chapter 3 the other. The path Naomi told her daughter-in-law to take might have turned the great man's heart away from the Moabite woman completely. But God ordered it otherwise according to faith, and so the difficulties disappeared one after another. God would have us trust Him... Let no one doubt where His blessing is found: in the path of duty, which some despise without knowing better.
The instructions began with washing, then anointing. One writer links the washing to Jesus washing His disciples' feet.
The first requirement, to "wash yourself," carries our thoughts to the feet washing of John 13. John must first have his feet washed before he can lean on Jesus' bosom. Feet washing must come before heart resting... We allow the defiling influences of the world to creep in and drag our affections down to earthly things. If we neglect feet washing, the defilement grows. Our minds get clogged and our affections dulled, until fellowship with Christ becomes rare or unknown... Washing is negative; it removes defilement. Anointing is positive; it leaves a sweet smell.
Where Ruth lay down is the point of the chapter.
There is no real rest for the soul until it is in the place Ruth pictures in this chapter. And where is that? Where does Ruth find rest? At the feet of Boaz. And where does a soul find rest? At the feet of Jesus! Ruth feels Boaz is the only one she can completely trust, and she goes and places herself under his wing.
One writer draws out what she learned there.
At his feet she learned not only that she longed for Boaz, but that Boaz longed for her. And having learned this, she can "sit still" and wait for Boaz to finish the matter.
- Custom — Boaz slept by the grain heap to guard it, a cloak over his feet. His good mood came from a harvest God had blessed, not from drink.
- Ground — Ruth stood on Israel's laws of redemption. She was claiming a right, not gambling on charm.
- Preparation — she washed and anointed herself first. Washing comes before resting, cleansing before closeness.
- Boldness — the move looked risky. Commentators call it the boldness of faith, and God honoured it as the difficulties fell away one by one.
- Rest — the feet are the destination. There she found rest. There she learned that the one she wanted wanted her too, so she could sit still and let him finish it.
And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was startled, and turned himself; and behold, a woman lay at his feet.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth, thy handmaid spread thy skirt over thy handmaid; for thou hast the right of redemption.
At midnight on the threshing floor Boaz wakes to find someone at his feet, and asks who she is. Her answer is not a plea for pity. It is a claim. She names herself his servant, asks for the covering of his wing, and rests it all on his right to redeem.
Ruth is not improvising. Her words appeal to two laws of Israel. Together they placed a double duty on the nearest male relative of a man who had died.
All land went back every fiftieth year to the family it had belonged to. Before that time any of the family or their relatives could buy it back, or redeem it. See Leviticus 25:23-28. Naomi had to sell, so she hoped one of her kinsmen would redeem it… There was another question too. The law said that if a man died childless, his nearest relative or "brother" should marry his widow. The firstborn son of that marriage was to carry the dead man's name, so that his name should not perish in Israel. See Deuteronomy 25:5-10. So the near kinsman had a double duty. If he was able, he was to redeem the land, and he was also to marry Mahlon's widow.
Where the ESV has "wings" and "servant", older translations read "skirt" and "handmaid". The picture is shelter, not clothing. Boaz had already used it about her.
"Spread your skirt (wing) over your handmaid" is not meant literally but as a picture. Ruth wanted his protection. When danger comes near, the hen gathers her helpless chicks under her wings (Matt. 23:37). When David fled from Saul, he took refuge in the shadow of the wings of his God (Ps. 57:1)… In the harvest field Boaz had already used this picture to welcome Ruth as a gleaner: "Jehovah repay your work, and let your reward be full from Jehovah the God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to take refuge" (2:12). Was Ruth pointing back to these words of Boaz when she asked, "Spread your wing over your handmaid"? It may well be so. The words of her lips expressed the faith of her heart: the "wing" of Boaz might be the agent of the sheltering "wings" of Jehovah.
The gesture had a settled meaning in that time and place.
Ruth's conduct may look strange and improper to us, but in the days when the judges ruled it was thought perfectly proper. Her asking Boaz to spread his skirt over her showed him that she was willing to become his wife (see Ezekiel 16:8). And though she is only a poor widow, and not an Israelite by birth, Boaz is quite agreeable to the proposal.
Boaz asks who she is. Redemption waits on her answer — and the answer that works admits she has nothing of her own.
At midnight, just at the darkest, His voice comes with a question. How necessary a question, when redemption is the thing at stake: "Who are you?" How blessed to know that the right answer is simply to own, "I am Ruth, your servant," for this is the name of the barren woman whose natural hopes are dead. The law applies to such a one and pledges itself to her: no other has any claim. "Spread, then, your wing over your servant" — this soul with its need of shelter — "for you are a redeemer."
Her approach is daring. It is also carefully measured — she asks only what his position as kinsman entitles her to ask.
There she seeks a pledge from Boaz. She comes to trust in the shadow of his wing. She would have him spread his skirt over her, doing for her the full services of her near kinsman. She goes as far as faith warrants her, but no farther; for Boaz, as they judged, was the nearest kinsman whose duty it was to repair the ruins of Elimelech's house; and so Ruth is strong in faith, and seeks the blessing confidently, but also humbly and graciously. And her faith is rewarded; it is done to her according to it.
Commentators read Boaz as a picture of Christ. What has changed since chapter 2 is the point.
She has done nothing but place herself under his protection… "You have showed more kindness at the latter end than at the beginning." What does he mean by that? In chapter 2 she had gone into the field merely as a gleaner, and there had met Boaz. Now she had gone straight to him, confided in him, put her case entirely into his hands. "Take charge of all my affairs, I claim your care," she seems to say, "you are a near kinsman" — that is, the heart claims Christ, and cannot do without Christ.
One writer sees here the turning round of an earlier moment in Israel's history. Then God acted first, unasked.
Long ago He sought them… No one asked Him for it, yet He took Israel for His inheritance and spread His wings over them. "When I passed by you and saw you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness; yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you" (Ezek. 16:8). But in the latter day, Israel must seek the Lord, as Ruth now seeks Boaz… Then Israel, like Ruth and Naomi, shall seek the shelter of His wing again, and the covering of His skirt again.
- Ground. She stands on law, not feeling. The near kinsman had to buy back the family land and to marry the widow.
- Wing. The wing means shelter. Boaz had told Ruth she came to take refuge under God's wings; now she asks him to be that shelter for her.
- Name. She must answer "Who are you?" before redemption can start. What qualifies her is the confession that her own hopes are dead.
- Ask. Spreading his skirt over her meant marriage — a strange scene to us, but proper in its day, and Boaz was quite willing.
- Result. She stops gleaning leftovers and puts her whole case in his hands. That is a heart claiming Christ — and the road back for Israel too, seeking the shelter of His wing again.