The steward gives a detailed account of Ruth. She is “the (rather “a”) Moabitish damsel,” she is a foreigner [as such she had a special claim to the gleaning, Leviticus 19:9]. She is the daughter-in-law of Naomi; and he adds that her behaviour has been praiseworthy, for she asked leave before beginning to glean, and she has worked hard all day, save for a short interval of rest. It would seem that Boaz’s visit to the field fell at the time when Ruth was thus resting: “This is her tarrying for a little in the house”; apparently, that is, some rude shelter from the heat set up in the field, like the lodge of Isaiah 1:8.

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