“Now, it is true that I am
a redeeming kinsman;
but there is a redeemer who
is a closer relative than I am.”
-Ruth 3:12
In verse 12, we see that a monkey wrench was thrown into Ruth’s plans to get Boaz to marry her.
Boaz tells Ruth he is perfectly happy to accept her marriage proposal because of her fine reputation known by everyone in the community of Bethlehem…
But there happens to be another GO’EL (family kinsman) who is a closer relative to Elimelech (Ruth’s deceased husband) than himself.
And since Boaz is a righteous man, there’s no way he can just step over the rights of this other GO’EL who is ahead of him in the family line and maintain his reputation.
So he tells Ruth to wait at the threshing floor the rest of the night and then in the morning he’ll meet with the other family redeemer at the city gates.
The city gates was usually where most legal business took place in the ancient Middle East.
If the other man declined to redeem Ruth then Boaz reassured Ruth he’d step up and take on that responsibility.
So Ruth stayed with Boaz…
And right before the day broke Boaz told Ruth it was time to get up and leave.
This was for her protection because if people saw this young woman leaving Boaz’s home they would’ve assumed some hanky panky took place.
We can see Boaz’s righteous character on full display here.
Notice he didn’t tell her to go home in the middle of the night when chances were high she might run into some unsavory characters who prowled the streets at night looking for trouble.
Plus there’s something else about this situation I want you to notice…
The very fact that Boaz chose to protect the rights of the other kinsman who was a nearer relative to the deceased Elimelech than himself is I think INDISPUTABLE evidence that Ruth and Boaz did NOT have sex with each other on this night.
Why?
Because there would be nothing more dishonest, disrespectful and immoral than for Boaz to touch Ruth until she was rightfully his…
You’d have to be an idiot of gargantuan proportions to think such God fearing folks as Ruth and Boaz fornicated with each other before any proper marriage took place.
You see what I’m getting at here?
Anyways, Boaz tells Ruth the whole matter would be resolved within a matter of hours and then he gave her a gift to take home to Naomi.
Boaz instructs Ruth to take hold of her shawl (most likely the SIMLAH she was wearing).
He then poured out 6 measures barley into it.
Exactly how much was “6 measures” of barley?
Well, there were two basic units of measurement in Biblical times.
One was a SEAH which is equal to about 10 pounds or 4.5 kilograms.
The other was an EPHAH which comes to about 30 pounds or 13.6 kilograms.
Now I doubt it was 6 ephahs…
That means Ruth would’ve had to carry about 180 pounds of grain back home…
Highly unlikely I think.
That would’ve been a bit less than Ruth gleaned on that day when Boaz ordered his workers to pull some stalks out of the sheaves so Ruth could glean more easily.
The truth of the matter is we don’t know exactly how much grain she carried back home but either way it was a generous amount.
what if ruth had , had a girl child . since we know she had no male child would all this still have takein place???? or does ruth have to be childless…could something be passed through to the girl if the girl had no brothers,,,, hope you understand my question,,,tony
Good question Tony. I would say in that case it still wouldn’t count because in those days it was only a male who could be considered eligible to become heir.