THE MARRIAGE OF BOAZ AND RUTH. THE BIRTH OF THEIR CHILD 1. Boaz WENT UP from the threshing floor to the open space by the city-gate, where the business he had in hand would have to be done, where, too, he would catch the other kinsman on his way out to the field. The author does not know this man's... [ Continue Reading ]
TEN was considered a perfect number (Jeremiah 6:27; 1 Samuel 25:5; 2 Samuel 18:15): where ten Jews live there should be a synagogue; these ten elders are heads of the community, sheikhs, as they would be called today. 3-5. Elimelech was not their BROTHER in the strict sense, but was a member of the... [ Continue Reading ]
The kinsman draws back. The Rabbinic commentator thought that he was afraid of dying by God's judgment for marrying a Moabite, as Mahlon and Chilion had perished. But his motive seems to have been an unwillingness to encroach on his own property for the sake of a son by Ruth, who would be heir of th... [ Continue Reading ]
The women are still to the front. As a rule the father or mother named the child. But it is the neighbours who here call him OBED, 'Servant,' anticipating that he would minister to all the wants of the aged woman who had been a true mother to RUTH. The book originally ended with the simple intimatio... [ Continue Reading ]