Ruth 3 · a question people ask
What did Ruth do at the threshing floor, and what did it mean?
The chapter says what was done and said, and no more. Naomi told Ruth to "note the place where he is lying. Then you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down" (3:4). Ruth "came softly, uncovered his feet, and lay down" (3:7) (tap feet). At midnight Boaz found "a woman lay at his feet" (3:8), and she asked, "spread the corner of your garment over your servant; for you are a near kinsman" (3:9). "She lay at his feet until the morning, then she rose up before one could discern another" (3:14). The text doesn't explain "uncover his feet", and Christians read these lines in two main ways. Both agree on what the chapter says: Ruth asked Boaz to spread the corner of his garment over her, "for you are a near kinsman" (3:9); Boaz blessed her by the LORD and called her "a worthy woman" (3:10-11); he named the nearer kinsman and promised to act if that man would not (3:12-13); at the gate, before witnesses, Boaz said of Ruth, "I have purchased to be my wife" (4:10); and "So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife" (4:13).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A plain, modest request for marriage
Those who hold this view read Ruth's acts as a plain and modest way of asking for marriage. Naomi's aim was "rest" for Ruth, "that it may be well with you" (3:1), as she had prayed that her daughters-in-law would "find rest, each of you in the house of her husband" (1:9). The word for feet in 3:4-14 is, in Brown-Driver-Briggs, "place of the feet, feet", and Ruth lay "at his feet" (3:8, 3:14). Her request uses the word of 2:12, kanaf: Boaz had blessed her by the LORD, "under whose wings you have come to take refuge" (2:12), and she asks him to "spread the corner of your garment over your servant" (3:9). The same Hebrew verb, noun and preposition come in the Lord GOD's words to Jerusalem through Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:3): "I spread my garment over you" (Ezekiel 16:8), and then, "I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you" (Ezekiel 16:8). On this reading, Boaz's "I will do to you all that you say" (3:11) is his yes.
Ruth 3:1 · Ruth 1:9 · Ruth 3:8 · Ruth 3:14 · Ruth 2:12 · Ruth 3:9 · Ezekiel 16:3 · Ezekiel 16:8 · Ruth 3:11
A bold step at night, kept honorable
Those who hold this view note how much of the plan was done in secret. Naomi said, "don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking" (3:3); Ruth "came softly" (3:7); and Boaz said, "Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor" (3:14), as she "rose up before one could discern another" (3:14). They read Naomi's plan as a risk to Ruth's good name, a step that could have been misread, and the chapter as showing how both acted rightly in it. Naomi had said, "he will tell you what to do" (3:4); instead Ruth asked Boaz to act, "for you are a near kinsman" (3:9). Boaz answered by blessing her by the LORD (3:10), by naming "a kinsman nearer than I" (3:12), and by binding himself with "as the LORD lives" (3:13); and Ruth went home to Naomi with the barley he gave her (3:15-17).
Ruth 3:3 · Ruth 3:7 · Ruth 3:14 · Ruth 3:4 · Ruth 3:9-10 · Ruth 3:12-13 · Ruth 3:15-17
The verses
“It shall be, when he lies down, that you shall note the place where he is lying. Then you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down. Then he will tell you what to do.””
“Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, “You are witnesses today, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.””
“So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son.”