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._ SPREAD THEREFORE THY SKIRT OVER THINE HANDMAID; BECAUSE THOU ART A NEAR KINSMAN. She had already drawn part of the mantle over her; and she asked him now to do it, that the act might become his own. To spread a skirt over one is, in the East, a symbolical action denoting protection. To this day in many parts of the East to say of any one that be put his skirt over a woman is synonymous with saying that he married her; and at all the marriages of the modern Jews and Hindus one part of the ceremony is for the bridegroom to put a silken or cotton cloak around his bride (see Roberts' 'Oriental Customs,' on this passage, where it is shown that the same practice obtains among the Hindus)....

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 3:9. _SPREAD THEREFORE THY SKIRT OVER THINE HAND MAID_] Hebrew, _Spread thy wing_. The _wing_ is the emblem of protection, and is a metaphor taken from the young of fowls, which run under the wings of their mothers, that they may be saved from birds of prey. The meaning here is, _Take me to thee for wife_; and so the Targum has translated it, _Let thy name be called on thy handmaid to take_ _me for wife, because thou art the redeemer_; i.e., thou art the גאל _goel_, the _kinsman_, to whom the right of _redemption_ belongs. See on Ruth 2:20. Even to the present day, when a Jew marries a woman, _he throws the skirt or end of his talith over her_, to signify that he has taken her under his protection....

SPREAD THY SKIRT ... - The phrase indicates receiving and acknowledging her as a wife....

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, WHO ART THOU?.... He spoke quick and short, as one displeased, or however surprised and frightened, just coming out of sleep, and in the night: AND SHE ANSWERED, I AM RUTH THINE HANDMAID; that had gleaned in his fields with his maidens, and with whom he had conversed there, and knew her by name: SPREAD THEREFORE THY SKIRT OVER THY HANDMAID; which seems to account for the reason of her uncovering his feet, or turning up the skirt of his garment that was upon them; not through wantonness and immodesty, but to direct him, when opportunity offered, to spread it over her as a token of his taking her in marriage, and of her being under his care and protection, and of her subjection to him; so the Targum, "let thy name be called upon me to take me for a wife,'' Whether the custom now used with the Jews at marriage, for a man to cast the skirt of his "talith", or outward garment...

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

THY SKIRT. wing (with Septuagint and Vulgate) Other codices, with two early printed editions, read "wings". "Wing" put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause) for protective care. App-6....

_spread therefore thy skirt over thy handmaid_ This symbolic act denoted that the kinsman claimed the widow as his wife. Cf. Ezekiel 16:8. The custom prevailed among the early Arabs; a good illustration is given in Ṭabarî"s commentary on the Koran (Sura 4:23, forbidding men to -inherit women against their will"): -In the Jâhilîya, when a man's father or brother or son died and left a widow, the dead man's heir, if he came at once and threw his garment over her, had the right to marry her under the dowry of [i.e. already paid by] her [deceased] lord, or to give her in marriage and take her dowry. But if she anticipated him and went off to her own people, then the disposal of her hand belonged to herself"; Robertson Smith, _Kinship_etc., p. 87. See also Sale's translation of the Koran (Warne & Co.), p. 56 and note. _a near kinsman_ The primary meaning of the Hebr. _go'el_