Naomi makes plans for Ruth
3
📚Then her mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shall I not look for a place for you to rest 📖, so that it will be well with you? 2 📚And now is not Boaz, with whose maid servants you have been working, our relative? Look, tonight he will be winnowing barley in the threshing floor. 3 📚Therefore wash yourself and anoint yourself and dress yourself, and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make your presence known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 And let it be like this: when he lies down, notice the place where he is lying, and you go in and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what you should do”. 3:3-4 Naomi was not suggesting that Ruth should try to seduce Boaz. Both Boaz and Ruth were godly, moral people (v 11). Naomi’s idea was that Ruth should appeal to Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer (v 9; Ruth 2:20).⚜
5 📚And she said to her, “I will do everything you tell me”. 6 📚And she went down to the threshing floor and did everything that her mother-in-law had ordered her.
Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer
7 📚And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 And it so happened at midnight that the man was startled, and he turned and saw a woman lying at his feet.
9 📚And he said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am your maid servant Ruth. So spread your covering over your maid servant, for you are a near kinsman 📖”.
10 📚And he said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter, for this last kindness you have shown is greater than the first 📖. You have not gone after the young men, whether poor or rich. 11 📚And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all that you need, for all the people in the city know that you are a virtuous woman. 12 📚And now it is true that I am your near kinsman, but there is a kinsman nearer than I. 13 📚Stay tonight, and in the morning it will be that if he acts as the kinsman-redeemer toward you, all right, let him redeem you. But if he will not act as the kinsman-redeemer toward you, then, as the LORD lives, I will act as the kinsman-redeemer toward you. Lie down until morning”.
3:11-13 Boaz expresses his willingness to marry her and buy the family property, but he would not be able to do so if the man who was a closer relative of Naomi’s family wished to act as “goel”.⚜
14 📚And she lay at his feet until morning, then rose up before one could recognize another. And he said, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came into the threshing floor”.
15 📚He also said, “Bring the veil that you have on and hold it out”. And when she held it out, he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her; and she went into the city.
16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did it go with you, my daughter?” And she told her all that the man had done for her.
17 And she said, “He gave me these six measures of barley, for he told me, ‘Don’t go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ”
18 📚Then said she, “Sit quietly, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest until he has finished the matter this very day”.