HEBREW WORD STUDY – HANDMAIDEN – ‘AMAH   SHIPHACHAH אמה  שפחה    Alpeh Mem Hei   Shin Peh Cheth Hei                      

Ruth 2:13:  “Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens”.

Ruth 3:9:  “And he said, Who [art] thou? And she answered, I [am] Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou [art] a near kinsman”.

Reading the Bible in the Original Hebrew opens up a world of information you would not get just reading your English Bible.  For instance I find no English translation that will show that every verse in the book of Ruth begins with a Vav.  Nor will it tell  you that the eight verses that do not begin with a Vav carries a little message if you take the first letter of the first word of each one of those eight verses and put them together and like a little secret code, a message appears to enhance your understanding of the Book of Ruth. This is so exciting for me that I have opened an All Access site where I teach Hebrew and these little secrets.  I hope  you join. 

Ok, you’ve had my commercial now for the little insight from the Hebrew that I have for today.  When Ruth first meets Boaz she says to him: “thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens”.  Then when she all but proposes marriage to him she says: “Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid.”    Most English translation will use the word handmaid for both verses. Some may show the distinction by saying handmaid for the first use and main servant for the second, but really, will anyone see a difference? At least I didn’t until I opened my Hebrew Bible and read it in the original Hebrew and then I saw something very significant.

In Ruth 2:13 she calls herself a shiphachah rendered as handmaid but in Ruth 3:9 just one chapter later she calls herself an ‘amah. This is also a handmaid or maid servant.  There is, however, a world of difference between a shiphachah and an ‘amah.  In fact Ruth doesn’t even refer to herself as a handmaid or shiphachah like the other shiphachahs.  A shipachah is a house maid who has served her master so well that she feels a part of the family or is an actually family member who serves as a maid or servant. Here Ruth is declaring that she is a foreigner, yet Boaz is treating her like family.  More than that by declaring she considers herself a shiphachah she is also saying that they could never be married or enjoy even a romantic relationship with him.  One was not to have such a relationship with a close family member.  So she uses this word to basically say: “You are being pretty good to me fellow but back off, no chance of romance, I am like a shiphachach even through I am not, but I am a foreigner and you are forbidden to marry a foreigner.

Somewhere along the line after that encounter, Naomi must have explained Hebrew law to Ruth telling her that a Hebrew woman could not marry a foreign man but a Hebrew man could marry a foreign woman if that woman becomes a proselyte, which Ruth did when she returned with Naomi and declared Noami’s people were now her people and she forsook all the paganism of the Moabites.  Technically, however, she was descended from Lot, a nephew of Abraham so her connection with the Hebrews was not altogether discounted.  Then when Noami revealed that Boaz was a kinsman, her husband’s brother and explained the law of levirate (Latin for brother/husband) and that Elimelech was part of a royal line (this I got from the Jewish Midrash on Ruth) and that a male descendant had to be born to carryout this royal line not to mention to bring the Messiah into the world,  Ruth began to put it all together.  Now remember Boaz was not the hunk you see on these phony movies about Ruth.  He was likely Noami’s age which had to put him in his fifties at least or more as Noami was past child bearing years. Ruth could have used her status to go with a younger more dashing man, but she was driven not to find a husband, not find the security of a husband nor that Boaz was rich.  She did it for the “sake of heaven.”  She realized she had a royal calling. And, well she had to admit she was attracted to the old man.

So now the next meeting  at the threshing floor where Boaz was sleeping off a hangover he awakens to find this woman at his feet, the gesture of a prostitute ready to proposition some poor slob but instead of saying 10 shekels, she says: “I am your handmaid.”  Only this time she uses the word ‘amah which is a word for a servant, but one who is outside the family and hence eligible for marriage with the master.  Then she declares he is a kinsman redeemer and to spread his skirt. She was literally saying: “Do you duty and marry me otherwise your in for a big scandal if you are caught alone with me.” It would not be until her great grandson David passed the law of yichud that it was forbidden to be alone with a woman not your wife or relative but it was still scandalous none the less. 

I once had a man on my bus who had three months to live. He was a former body guard for three of the top mafia leaders in Chicago.  He injured and killed a number of men in his life. He knew he was dying and resigned himself to the fact he was going to hell. He considered himself a shiphachah,  But I explained to him that Jesus died on the cross to make him eligible like a ‘amah to be married to him and all he had to do was lay at His feet and say: “I am your ‘aman, you died for me so I want to belong to you.”  He took my advice.