translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: RUT

label: NET study note

text: Ruth must have waited until Boaz fell asleep, for he does not notice when she uncovers his legs and lies down beside him.


text: Now he saw a woman . The narrator writes from Boaz’s perspective. Both the narrator and the reader know the night visitor is Ruth, but from Boaz’s perspective she is simply “a woman.”


text: Sleep here . Perhaps Boaz tells her to remain at the threshing floor because he is afraid she might be hurt wandering back home in the dark. See Song 5:7 and R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 218.


text: ‘Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed .’ In addition to being a further gesture of kindness on Boaz’s part, the gift of barley served as a token of his intention to fulfill his responsibility as family guardian. See R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 225-26, and F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 187.