R3-13: How The Hebrew Word For ‘Wings’ Connects Ruth To Israel’s Exodus From Egypt

So far in our study of Ruth we’ve gone deep into the following two Hebrew words as they appear in the following verse when Ruth boldly asked Boaz to marry her.

“Spread your robe over your AMAH (your handmaid) because you are a GOEL (a redeeming kinsman)”.

Well, there’s another key Hebrew word we’re gonna add to the equation…

And that’s the word for “robe” being used here.

That word is KANAPH or כָּנָף.

So now we’ve got a total of three key words all appearing in Ruth’s marriage request to Boaz as follows:

“Spread your KANAPH (robe or wings) over your AMAH (your handmaid) because you are a GOEL (a redeeming kinsman)”.

And recall how the term KANAPH is connected to Boaz’s blessing towards Ruth when he said:

^“May Adonai reward you for what you’ve done; may you be rewarded in full by Adonai the God of Israel, under whose KANAPH you have come for refuge.”

Can you see the connection between earth and heaven being made here?

When Ruth declared her allegiance to the God of Israel, she came under the Lord’s KANAPH for spiritual refuge.

And now after being grafted into the people of Israel, she has now come under Boaz’s KANAPH for earthly refuge.

One was a spiritual marriage made in heaven with her heavenly redeemer so to speak.

The other was to become an earthly marriage with her kinsman redeemer.

But the awesome allusions, the connections of which can only be made by knowing the Hebrew, don’t end there.

The great Rashi also pointed out that when Ruth said to Boaz “Spread your KANAPH over your AMAH”, this was a connection to what the Lord said to Israel when He gave them the Torah at Mount Sinai and told them…

“Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,
and how I bare you on eagles’ KANAPHEI (wings),
and brought you unto myself.”
-Exodus 19:4

This is absolutely amazing!

And again, I hope you can appreciate these are connections that can ONLY BE SEEN when we go behind the English and look at the original Hebrew.