Hebrew Word Study – The Lord is Here – YHWH  Imaken  יהוה עמכם Yod Hei Vav Hei  Ayin Mem Kap Mem

The Story of Ruth Is All About Redemption

Ruth 2:4: “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.”

Yesterday, I took a break and sat back and watched a faith-based movie on Pure Flix.  It was the story of Ruth.  A really great movie which I highly recommend so long as you are aware that much license has been used.  For instance, the casting is pure Hollywood.  Boaz was pictured as a young, Hollywood handsome man who apparently had a professional stylist do his hair and a talented fashion designer make his clothes. Naomi, who was supposed to be past childbearing years was cast as a young-looking, middle-aged, woman who could have been Ruth’s sister. I could point out many other little liberties that were added to fill in the gaps in this story.  

I did notice, however, that the flow of the story had a couple of hiccups. For instance, when Ruth spread her blanket over Boaz and laid at his feet, there was no explanation for this little ritual. I mean for a “G” rated movie you could not explain that this was the way a prostitute would solicit and proposition some poor slob who happened to draw the short straw to spend the night guarding the harvest. That little extra pay he got for this duty would draw prostitutes to him like flies to honey.  The woman of the night would lay at the feet of her prospective client and wake him up suggesting a shekel for an hour.  Bible scholars, as this poor writer, believe this was done to parallel an occasion of an ancestor of Boaz name Judah who refused to perform the levirate marriage with his daughter in law. So to bear a child to preserve her deceased husband’s name she dressed up as a prostitute and enticed him to share an intimacy with him which resulted in the fulfillment of the purpose of the levirate marriage and that provides a son. In this case, Ruth did not share that intimacy with Boaz until after they were married where Boaz voluntarily entered the levirate marriage.  Naomi may have suggested Ruth approach Boaz with the demand that he fulfill his obligation for the levirate marriage by acting out the story of Judah, a story he knew quite well, and being the righteous man he was, he would fulfill his obligation. Like you, I prefer the romantic, less accurate version. History not as it was but as it should have been. But of course, you can’t explain that in a 90-minute movie nor would you want to with children watching this movie.

This brings us to the point of Boaz, the handsome, dashing, rich young man straight out of a Grace Livingston Hill novel. This old boy was old.  He was the kid brother of Elimelech, Ruth’s father, so he would have been an old geezer by this time not to mention he was also Ruth’s uncle on her husband’s side. It is a bit odd that if Ruth was such a hot number that the closest relative didn’t want to snatch her up. Actually, he would have been obligated to marry Naomi but she was most likely past childbearing age as indicated in Ruth 1:11-12.  This would nullify the obligation of the kinsman-redeemer to perform the levirate marriage as the purpose was to give the widow a child to carry on her late husband’s name.  So, the obligation would fall to the widow of the son of Elimelech namely Ruth who was a Moabite.  Not only that, according to the Midrash she was a princess.  You see, Elimelech’s name means God’s chief ruler. In Jewish tradition,  Elimelech was likely a judge. Judges ruled Israel before kings so he would have been the closest Israel had to a royal family at that time. The sages teach that during the great famine, rather than exhort the people to repentance for the sins that brought out the famine, Elimelech decided to travel to Moab and strike up an alliance by having his sons marry the daughters of the king of Moab, namely Ruth and Oprah.  For this it is believed his family was cursed because Hebrew strictly forbid the marriage of a Hebrew male to a Moabite woman. This is why Ruth was so shunned when she arrived in Israel and the Sanhedrin made no effort to enforce the levirate marriage. So Elimelech’s land laid barren with no one to redeem it. The nearest kinsman as well as the next kinsman, Boaz, would not break Hebrew law and marry a Moabite woman.

That brings me to the point of this study.  What changed all this such that Ruth, a Moabite woman, was suddenly allowed to marry a Hebrew man?  The answer lies in how we translate Ruth 2:4: “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.”  Notice the word “be” is italicized.  That is the translator drawing your attention to the fact that the word “be” is not in the original text. What you have is “The Lord with you.”  In English, we need a verb to complete a sentence but in Hebrew, you can have a sentence without a verb.  The sages teach that the verb should be “is” not “be.”   In other words, “The Lord is with you.” That is to say: “The Lord his here.”  The reapers responded, “The Lord will bless you.”  The word bless is in a Piel imperfect form. That means God will surely bless you abundantly.  This was not a typical greeting. There was something behind this. When Boaz entered the field, he felt the presence of God as did the reapers who also felt the presence of God and responded. “Yeah, we feel it too, you are really going to be blessed.”  Then he noticed Ruth and asked about her.  Not because she was one hot number but because Boaz discerned she was the source of the presence of God that they felt.  A foreign woman, a Moabite for crying out loud, glowing with the presence of God.   A little investigation proved she shunned a life of royalty and idolatry to become a proselyte to the Hebrew faith. As she told Naomi in Ruth 1:16: “Where you live, I will live, your people will be my people, your God will be my God.”  

The nearest kinsman felt even though she converted she was still a Moabite and God would curse him if he married Ruth.  Boaz, interpreted the law differently that Ruth’s sincere conversion to God, shunning pagan gods and the evidence of the presence of God upon her proved she was a true Hebrew convert and free to marry a Hebrew man.  Boaz even forced the nearest kinsman to perform a Halizah, the removing of his shoe and everything else to legally pass the obligation to Boaz.

By the way, the rest if the story. Ruth was the great-grandmother of David who was the ancestor of Jesus our Messiah. Oh, and the Moabites were the descendants of Moab, who was fathered by Lot through an incestuous relationship with his daughter.  Ruth and Boaz entered their relationship properly and according to the laws of God, in a way redeeming the sins of their fathers.  But more than that, even though the bloodline of Jesus is pretty tainted, God allowed Mary to be conceived through the Holy Spirit. The story of Ruth is all about redemption.  

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