Ruth 3:10

_AND HE SAID, BLESSED BE THOU OF THE LORD, MY DAUGHTER: FOR THOU HAST SHEWED MORE KINDNESS IN THE LATTER END THAN AT THE BEGINNING, INASMUCH AS THOU FOLLOWEDST NOT YOUNG MEN, WHETHER POOR OR RICH._ Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter ... Continued widowhood was regarded by the Jews as an indication of more than ordinary piety....

6-13 What in one age or nation would be improper, is not always so in another age or another nation. Being a judge of Israel, Boaz would tell Ruth what she should do; also whether he had the right of redemption, and what methods must be taken, and what rites used, in order to accomplishing her marriage with him or another person. The conduct of Boaz calls for the highest praise. He attempted not to take advantage of Ruth; he did not disdain her as a poor, destitute stranger, nor suspect her of any ill intentions. He spoke honourably of her as a virtuous woman, made her a promise, and as soon as the morning arrived, sent her away with a present to her mother-in-law. Boaz made his promise conditional, for there was a kinsman nearer than he, to whom the right of redemption belonged....

Verse Ruth 3:10. _IN THE LATTER END THAN AT THE BEGINNING_] It is not easy to find out what Boaz means. Perhaps חסד _chesed_, which we translate _kindness_, means piety; as if he had said: Thou hast given great proof of thy _piety_ in this latter instance, when thou hast avoided the young, and those of thy own age, to associate thyself with an elderly man, merely for the purpose of having the Divine injunction fulfilled, viz., that the brother, or next akin, might take the wife of the deceased, and raise a family to him who had died childless, that his name might not become extinct in Israel: this latter act is a greater proof of thy piety and sincerity than any thing that could be inferred from thy becoming a proselyte. _WHETHER POOR OR RICH._] So it appears from this that it was not to mend her condition in life that Ruth endeavoured to get Boaz fo

THOU HAST SHEWED MORE KINDNESS ... - Literally, “Thou hast made thy last kindness better than the first.” Her last kindness was her willingness to accept Boaz for her husband, advanced in years as he was....

EXPOSITION RUTH 3:1 AND NAOMI, HER MOTHER-IN-LAW, SAID TO HER, MY DAUGHTER, SHALL NOT I SEEK OUT FOR THEE A REST, THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH THEE? When Ruth had nothing more to do on the harvest-fields, where Boaz appeared daily, and was unremittingly gracious to her, she may have fallen into a pensive mood. Naomi was quick to note the varying '_nuances_'_ _of feeling, and said "_My _daughter, shall I not seek out for thee a rest?" The expression _rest_, or _resting-place_, though in itself of generic import, was, when used in such circumstances as environed Ruth, quite specific in application, and would be at once understood. It was _a home _to which Naomi pointed, a home for her daughter's heart. In such a home, if warm and pure, there would be repose for the affections. "That it may be well with thee," or

AND HE SAID, BLESSED BE THOU OF THE LORD, MY DAUGHTER,.... Instead of calling her an immodest woman for laying herself down at his feet, and a bold impudent woman, she being poor, to ask marriage of him; and instead of being angry with her, and chiding and reproving her for disturbing and frightening him in the night, he blesses her, and pray's to God to bless her, and prosper her in what she had engaged, and in a kind and loving manner calls her his daughter: FOR THOU HAST SHOWED MORE KINDNESS IN THE LATTER END THAN AT THE BEGINNING; that is, to her husband's family; she had shown much love to her husband living and dying, and to her mother-in-law, in leaving her country and kindred to come with her into a strange country, and in labour to support her, as she had done, all which was great kindness; to which the Targum adds, her being proselyted; but the kindness she now showed exceeded...

CHAPTER 3 AT THE FEET OF BOAZ _ 1. Naomi instructs Ruth (Ruth 3:1)_ 2. At his feet (Ruth 3:6) 3. The discovery (Ruth 3:8) 4. The six measures of barley (Ruth 3:14) 5. He will not rest until he have finished the thing (Ruth 3:18) What follows in the realization of redemption must be connected with Leviticus 25, the law concerning the redemption of an inheritance and the other law about the marriage of a brother-in-law as given in...

RUTH 3. BOAZ AS A GOË L. Elimelech and his two sons were dead. Would any member of the family have enough right and proper feeling to save his name from extinction? The nearest relative was in this case silent and inactive. But, with the originality of love, Naomi devised a plan not merely for the redemption of her late husband's estate and the continuation of the family succession, but for the happy settlement of Ruth in a Judæ an home. Ignorant of the customs of Bethlehem, Ruth follows her mother-in-law's instructions to the letter. According to the sentiment of the time there was nothing immodest or unwomanly in their bold and unusual line of action. Rightly understood, it was only a gentle and delicate way of appealing to a kinsman's chivalry; and Ruth did not appeal in vain. Ruth 3:1. Better a resting-place (_mg._); the beautiful Heb. word (_mĕ? nûḥ?â_) has much the same ass

_thou hast shewed more kindness_ At the outset Ruth had shewn her piety towards her mother in law (Ruth 2:11); now she shews it towards her husband's family. She has declined to seek a second marriage outside, and by her action the dead will come by his rights....

HE SAID, BLESSED BE THOU OF THE LORD— Nothing can be more honourable than the testimony which Boaz gives in this and the next verse to the character of Ruth; which, while it removes all suspicions from her reputation, at the same time proves that Boaz acted upon principle, and was a man of true discernment and real piety....