| 1. Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a mighty man of valor, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. |
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א. |
| a kinsman: Heb. מוֹדַע, a kinsman. He was the son of Elimelech’s brother. Our Sages said: Elimelech and Salmon the father of Boaz and So-and-So the near kinsman were all sons of Nahshon the son of Amminadab, but the merit of their fathers did not avail them when they left the Land to go abroad. |
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| 2. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "I will go now to the field, and I will glean among the ears of grain, after someone whom I will please." And she said, "Go, my daughter." |
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ב. |
| I will go now to the field: To one of the fields of the people of the city, after one of them, in whose eyes I will find favor, that he will not rebuke me. |
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| 3. And she went, and she came, and she gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her chance was [to come to] the field that [belonged] to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. |
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ג. |
| And she went, and she came, and she gleaned in the field: We find in Midrash Ruth [Rabbah]: Before she went she came; Scripture says: And she came, and she gleaned? But rather, she marked the roads before she entered the field, and she went and came and returned to the city, in order to make signs and markings so that she would not stray in the paths and know how to return. |
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| and her chance was: to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz. |
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| 4. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, "May the Lord be with you!" And they said to him, "The Lord bless you." |
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ד. |
| 5. Then Boaz said to his servant, who stood over the reapers, "To whom does this maiden belong?" |
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ה. |
| To whom does this maiden belong?: Now was it Boaz’s habit to inquire about the women? But rather, he saw her modest and wise behavior. Two ears she would glean but three she would not glean; and she would glean the standing ears while standing and the lying ones while sitting, in order to avoid bending over. |
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| 6. And the servant in charge of the reapers answered and said, "She is a Moabite maiden who returned with Naomi from the fields of Moab. |
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| who returned with Naomi: The accent is under the “shin” because it is the past tense, and not the present tense of the verb. |
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| 7. And she said, 'I will now glean and gather from among the sheaves after the reapers.' And she came and stood even from the morning until now, except when she sat a little in the house." |
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ז. |
| And she said: to herself. |
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| I will now glean: the gleaning of the ears. |
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| and gather from among the sheaves: the forgotten sheaves. |
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| 8. And Boaz said to Ruth, "Have you not heard, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, neither shall you go away from here, and here you shall stay with my maidens. |
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ח. |
| 9. Your eyes shall be on the field that they reap, and you shall follow them; have I not ordered the youths not to touch you? And [if] you are thirsty, you may go to the vessels and drink from that which the youths draw." |
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ט. |
| And [if] you are thirsty, you may go to the vessels: And if you are thirsty, do not be ashamed to go and drink from the vessels of water that the young men will draw. |
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| 10. And she fell on her face and prostrated herself to the ground, and she said to him, "Why have I pleased you that you should take cognizance of me, seeing that I am a foreigner?" |
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| 11. And Boaz replied and said to her, "It has been told to me all that you did for your mother-in-law after your husband's death, and you left your father and your mother and your native land, and you went to a people that you did not know before. |
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יא. |
| 12. May the Lord reward your deeds, and may your reward be full from the Lord God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to take shelter." |
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יב. |
| 13. And she said, "Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me, and you have spoken to the heart of your handmaid, but I am not [as worthy] as one of your handmaids." |
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יג. |
| but I am not as one of your handmaids: I am not as worthy as one of your handmaids. |
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| 14. And Boaz said to her at mealtime, "Come here and partake of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar." So she sat down beside the reapers, and he handed her parched grain, and she ate and was sated and left over. |
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יד. |
| and dip your morsel in the vinegar: From here [we derive] that vinegar is beneficial for a heatwave. |
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| and he handed her parched grain: Heb. וַיִצְבָּט, and he handed her. There is no similar word in the Bible, but in the language of the Mishnah (Hagigah 3:1): “the back, the interior, and the handle (בֵּית הַצְבִיטָה).” |
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| 15. And she rose to glean, and Boaz ordered his servants, saying, "Let her glean also among the sheaves, and do not embarrass her. |
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טו. |
| 16. And also, pretend to forget some of the bundles for her, and leave it that she may glean, and do not scold her." |
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טז. |
| And also, pretend to forget: Heb. שֹּׁל תָּשּׂלוּ, you shall forget, pretend that you are forgetting. The Targum for שְּׁגָגָה, inadvertence, is שָּׁלוּתָא, and similarly, (II Sam. 6: 7): “for the error, (הַשַּׁל).” Another explanation: an expression of (Deut. 28:40): “your olive tree will cast off (יִשַּׁל) [its fruit].” |
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| bundles: Heb. צְבָתִים small sheaves, and there is a similar expression in the language of the Mishnah (Er. 10:1): “If he found them (tefillin) in pairs (צְבָתִים) or in bundles.” |
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| 17. And she gleaned in the field until evening, and she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. |
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יז. |
| 18. And she carried [it] and came to the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she took [it] out and gave her what she had left over after being sated. |
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יח. |
| 19. And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where have you gleaned today and where have you worked? May he who took heed of you be blessed." So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and she said, "The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz." |
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יט. |
| May he who took heed of you: the owner of the field who showed you favor [and permitted you] to glean in his field. |
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| 20. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he of the Lord, who did not leave off his kindness with the living or with the deceased." And Naomi said to her, "The man is our kinsman; he is one of our near kinsmen." |
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| with the living or with the deceased: That he sustains and supports the living and occupies himself with the needs of the deceased. |
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| 21. And Ruth the Moabitess said, "He also said to me; You shall stay with my youths until they finish my entire harvest." |
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כא. |
| 22. And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, so that they do not molest you in another field." |
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כב. |
| 23. And she stayed with Boaz's maidens to glean until the completion of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law. |