Today we begin Ruth Chapter 2.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James Version, click HERE.
“Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a prominent and wealthy member of Elimelekh’s clan, whose name was Boaz.”-Ruth 2:1
Verse 1 establishes that Naomi is NOT directly related to Boaz by blood.
Instead Boaz’s lineage is connected to Naomi’s deceased husband Elimelech.
We’re also told Boaz was a rich man who hailed from the same clan as Elimelech.
This fact nicely dovetails with the info provided in the first chapter that Elimelech’s family were called “Eprathim of Bethlehem”.
Remember Eprathim comes from the root word Ephra which means “fruitful” or “abundance”.
My point is that Elimelech was a rich clan and that’s the reason why they were nicknamed “Ephrathim”.
The term had nothing to do with the tribe of Ephraim.
The fact we’re told Boaz was a rich man who also hailed from the same clan as Elimelech is just further Scriptural evidence supporting this.
Onward.
Notice it says Naomi had a “relative”.
Other English Bible translations will say “Kinsmen”.
I’ll tell you right now that’s a stretch based on the original Hebrew.
The original Hebrew word here is MODA or מוֹדַע…
The nuance of the word is someone who is a distant acquaintance of the same clan, NOT a close relative.
In other words, Boaz’s familial connection to Naomi wasn’t close enough whereby he was obligated to provide for her financially or something.
Finally, let’s discuss the issue of the meaning of Boaz’s name.
I say the “issue of” because the truth is there’s a lot of debate on this and I can’t find strong evidence supporting one position or another.
Some folks say his name means “swiftness”…
Others say it means “with strength” or “strength is with him” or something like that.
The problem is there’s no other character in the Bible that shares his name.
You’ll only find one person called Boaz in all of the Scriptures and that’s only in the book of Ruth.
The only other time the name Boaz appears in the Scriptures is as the name of one of the two huge pillars that stand at the entranceway to Solomon’s Temple.
The other pillar is called YACHIN by the way.
But even in this case, there’s still a lot of speculation in terms of its real meaning.
The fact we don’t know the real meaning of Boaz’s name frustrates me a bit because I know that Biblically speaking a person’s name wasn’t just a form of identification…
In the Bible, a person’s name pointed to one’s attributes, character and mission.
Just like Yeshua means “Salvation”…
So to close with my takeaway for today, I’m gonna let my imagination go a little wild and take a guess at the meaning of Boaz’s name based on all of the scholarly opinions that have been offered up until now…
So I’ll go out on a limb here and say Boaz’s name means…
“One who SWIFTLY rides to the rescue with great Godly STRENGTH”.
Because as we’re gonna see moving forward, that’s who he turned out to be.
See ya all next time!
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