HEBREW WORD STUDY – SPREAD YOUR GARMENT – PARASTA KENAPHENKA 

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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.”

Ruth was a Moabite.  The Moabites were descendants from the daughter of Lot who had a incestuous relationship with her father who was the Nephew of Abraham.  The result of that union was a child name Moab.  He was the father of the Moabite race and hence Ruth was an ancestor of Moab who was born out of an incestuous relationship.  Yet, Ruth was an ancestor of David and eventually an ancestor of Jesus.  So you trace the origins of Jesus and shake up the family tree you find that He was descended from an incestuous relationship. 

Now let’s trace the lineage of Boaz, it was not much better. His descendent came from Judah whose eldest son died before he could produce a child from his wife Tamar to carry on the name.  Under the Jewish law of levirate the second son had to marry Tamar and give her a child.  He refused and he died.  The third son also refused to follow the law and he died.  Thus Judah had no sons to carry on his lineage who would eventually bring about the king of Israel, David, and eventually the Messiah. Tamar his daughter in law then sought to have a relationship with her father in law to give her a son.  The way she went about it was to pass herself off as a prostitute and without realizing it was his daughter in law he had a relationship with her and she became pregnant.  When Judah saw that his daughter in law was pregnant he sought to put her to death for adultery only to discover from her evidence that he was the father.  That changed things since he was the party to the adulterous relationship and she and the child were allowed to live.  So now we have Boaz descendent from an adulterous relationship born out of prostitution. This was an attempt by the enemy to defile the lineage of Jesus. 

Here is my speculation on this and I offer it only for your consideration.  Why did not Naomi call for a shadchan?  You may be more familiar with the Yiddish term from Fiddler on the Roof, a yenta or a matchmaker.  After all Ruth’s father in law had been a rich man. The Midrash also teaches he was the Chief of the Sanhedrin sort of like the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He left Bethlehem because of the rampant sin of the land which fell into famine as a result of their sin. Upon Naomi’s return she had a right to have her husband’s land purchased by his nearest kinsman who was also was obligated to marry her and produce a child who would carry on the name of her husband Elimelech.  This may not have been a real example of a levirate marriage for reasons I will explain my next study.  

The Bible does not name the kinsman but as the nearest kinsman he would be the one to carry out the duties of a levirate marriage.  This would be to purchase the brother’s land from the widow and marry the widow or the son’s widow if she was past child bearing years. Noami most likely did not want her beloved daughter in law to marry a man who would not be a fitting husband like Boaz which many explain her plot.

When Boaz got himself significantly drunk and he laid down to sleep, she was to go and lay at his feet.  This was a customary marketing scheme in those days for a prostitute. When the old boy wakes up, finds this woman at his feet he knows her intent and negotiates a price for her services as a bed warmer for the night.  Only here we learn that Naomi says in verse 4 “He will tell thee what to do.”  The Midrash makes a case for the fact that the pronoun He, Hu, in Hebrew is a reference to God and not Boaz.  Thus, God will tell her what to do.  The upshot is that she will tell Boaz to parasta kenapheka – spread your skirt or garment.  The Midrash teaches that this is a gesture of the badekenish or the part if the marriage ceremony where the groom puts the veil over his brides face.  Unlike today’s tradition where the bride comes to the altar which her face veiled, in the ancient Jewish ceremony as even today the groom places the veil over the brides face to say: “You are beautiful on the outside but it is your inner beauty that I love. As your outer beauty may fade through the years I will always remain in love with your inner beauty. By asking Boaz to spread his garment she was saying: “I am here to be your wife, not your prostitute.”

By not producing a child through incest or prostitution but through the God created way of marriage, both Ruth and Boaz defeated the enemy, redeemed the nations and produced an heir to the Messiah through a marriage of love. Just my little bit of speculation.  David produced a child through adultery and that baby died after that Solomon was born in the way God designed through a marriage of love.

So too is God’s redemption for us. Not just to redeem us from the corruption of the enemy  but to redeem us in a marriage of love.  Where the race of  Lot and Judah was propagated through a loveless union and Ruth and Boaz redeemed their nations through a union of love so too God redeems us through a union of love.