Ruth 3:1 Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shouldn’t I find a resting place for you so that you will be taken care of?
Ruth 3:2 Now isn’t Boaz our relative? Haven’t you been working with his girls? This evening he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
Ruth 3:3 Wash – put on perfumed oil, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
Ruth 3:4 When he lies down, notice the place where he’s lying, go in and uncover his feet, and lie down. Then he will explain to you what you should do.”
Ruth 3:5 So Ruth said to her, “I will do everything you say.”
Ruth 3:6 She went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had charged her to do.
Ruth 3:7 After Boaz ate, drank, and was in good spirits, he went to lie down at the end of the pile of barley, and she came secretly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
Ruth 3:8 At midnight, Boaz was startled, turned over, and there lying at his feet was a woman!
Ruth 3:9 So he asked, “Who are you?” “I am Ruth, your servant,” she replied. “Spread out your wing, because you are a family deliverer.”
Ruth 3:10 Then he said, “May Yahveh bless you, my daughter. You have shown more kindness now than before, because you have not pursued younger men, whether rich or poor.
Ruth 3:11 Now don’t be afraid, my daughter. I will do for you whatever you say, since all the people in my town know that you are a powerful woman.
Ruth 3:12 Yes, it is true that I am a family deliverer, but there is a deliverer closer than I am.
Ruth 3:13 Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to deliver you, that’s good. Let him deliver you. But if he doesn’t want to deliver you, as Yahveh lives, I will. Now lie down until morning.”
Ruth 3:14 So she lay down at his feet until morning but got up while it was still dark. Then Boaz said, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”
Ruth 3:15 And he told Ruth, “Bring the shawl you’re wearing and hold it out.” When she held it out, he shoveled six measures of barley into her shawl, and she went into the town.
Ruth 3:16 She went to her mother-in-law, Naomi, who asked her, “What happened, my daughter?” Then Ruth told her everything the man had done for her.
Ruth 3:17 She said, “He gave me these six measures of barley, because he said, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'”
Ruth 3:18 Naomi said, “My daughter, wait until you find out how things go, because he won’t rest unless he resolves this today.”
a quote:
“I shall call chapter 3 “Waiting.” Naomi tells Ruth to present herself to Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer. Boaz can redeem them, pay their debts and set them free. Ruth, in a great act of faith and love, goes to Boaz and lies at his feet. This act is the turning point in the book. You find her at the feet of Boaz when she is gleaning (2:10), but at that time she is thanking him for his generosity. She does not know who he is or what he can do for her. She simply realizes that he is providing food and protection for her. But in chapter 3 she knows who Boaz is. She lies at his feet, and he says to her, “Fear not;I will do to thee all that thou requirest” (v. 11).”
Wiersbe Warren W. Put Your Life Together : Studies in the Book of Ruth. Victor Books 1985.p.10.
Ruth 2:1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side. He was a powerful[1] man of noble character from Elimelech’s clan.[2] His name was Boaz.
Ruth 2:2 Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, “Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone with whom I find favor?” Naomi answered her, “Go ahead, my daughter.”
Ruth 2:3 So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the section of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s clan.
Ruth 2:4 Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “Yahveh be with you.” “Yahveh bless you,” they replied.
Ruth 2:5 Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, “Whose girl[3] is this?”
Ruth 2:6 The servant answered, “She is the Moabite girl who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab.
Ruth 2:7 She asked, ‘Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters? ‘ She came and has been on her feet since early morning, except that she rested a little in the shelter.”
Ruth 2:8 Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go and gather grain in another field, and don’t leave this one, but stay here close to my girls.
Ruth 2:9 See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven’t I ordered the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”
Ruth 2:10 She fell face down, bowed to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor with you, so that you notice me, even though I am a foreigner?”
Ruth 2:11 Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and your native land, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know.
Ruth 2:12 May Yahveh reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from Yahveh, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”
Ruth 2:13 “My lord,” she said, “I have found favor with you, because you have comforted and encouraged your servant, although I am not like one of your female servants.”
Ruth 2:14 At mealtime Boaz told her, “Come over here and have some bread and dip it in the vinegar sauce.” So she sat beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
Ruth 2:15 When she got up to gather grain, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her even gather grain among the bundles, and don’t shame her.
Ruth 2:16 Pull out some stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to gather. Don’t rebuke her.”
Ruth 2:17 So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gathered, and it was about twenty-six quarts of barley.
Ruth 2:18 She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.
Ruth 2:19 Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May he be blessed who noticed you.” Ruth told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with and said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.”
Ruth 2:20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May Yahveh bless him because he has not abandoned his kindness to the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family deliverers.”[4]
Ruth 2:21 Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished all of my harvest.'”
Ruth 2:22 So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work with his girls, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.”
Ruth 2:23 Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s girls and gathered grain until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
” In chapter 2 we find Ruth serving in the field as a gleaner. She picks up the grain that the reapers drop as they gather the harvest. This is not a very lofty position, is it? But then Boaz comes to her aid and falls in love with her. From that point on everything starts to change, even though Ruth does not realize who Baaz is until she goes home and talks to her mother-in-law.”
Wiersbe Warren W. Put Your Life Together : Studies in the Book of Ruth. Victor Books 1985. p.10.
1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off. 2 Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them. 3 But take a few strands of hair from those and tie them in the ends of your garment. 4 Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, and burn them up. From there, a fire will spread to all the house of Israel. 5 “This is what the sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her. 6 Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around her. Indeed, they have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes. 7 “Therefore this is what the sovereign LORD says: Because you are more arrogant than the nations around you, you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even carried out the regulations of the nations around you! 8 “Therefore this is what the sovereign LORD says: I — even I — am against you, and I will execute judgment among you while the nations watch.
Who was Ezekiel?
He was a prophet during the exile, and his life story is mostly contained in his own writings, which have been preserved in the Bible. Ezekiel’s name means either ‘God is strong’ or ‘God strengthens,’ and he was the son of Buzi, a priest from the Zadok lineage.
His writings reveal that he was among the exiles who journeyed to Babylon with King Jehoiachin following Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Jerusalem in 597 B.C.
Ezekiel mentions living on the banks of the river Chebar at a place called Tell Abib. That is not the same as modern-day Tel-Aviv. The word simply means “mound of the flood.”
Josephus reports that he was very young when the Jewish exiles left Jerusalem, though this might be an overstatement. His prophetic journey appears to have begun around 593-592 B.C., as seen in the visions and oracles in the first two chapters. These early visions do not seem immature at all.
Ezekiel’s records are precisely dated, which helps us trace more clearly the development of his teachings compared to prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, whose writings lack a strict chronological order. The structure of Ezekiel’s prophecies shows a clear sense of organization and artistic design, making it easier to follow the historical background and the prophet’s learning as God’s watchman, responsible for delivering God’s messages during turbulent times.
The last recorded date appears in 29:17, specifically the month of Nisan in the twenty-seventh year of the captivity. This places us in the year 570 B.C. How much longer he lived and worked is unknown. Since his first recorded prophecy is definitively dated to 593-592 B.C., his prophetic activity must have spanned at least twenty-two years.
During his time by the Chebar River in Babylon, he lived in a house (3:24, 8:1) and was happily married. The year 588 B.C. brought a double sorrow for the prophet. That year marked the beginning of the final, devastating siege of Jerusalem, which led to the fall of the Jewish kingdom and the destruction of the Temple. Right after this painful event, his wife passed away. He was advised not to weep loudly for the dead but to mourn quietly. This silent period lasted for over a year, allowing him time to grieve in his own way.
Today’s text reveals that the title the LORD used for Ezekiel was “son of man.” From Daniel’s prophecy, we learn that the title “son of man” would be one held by the Messiah. Sure enough, Jesus came and introduced himself as the Son of Man. Like Ezekiel, our Lord served as both a prophet and a priest. As the Son of Man, Jesus served as the one mediator between God and men. Ezekiel prefigured the coming Messiah in the many ways he communicated God’s message to his people.
The LORD’s instructions to Ezekiel (1-4).
God told Ezekiel to take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. He said to shave off some of the hair from his head and your beard. The hair was to symbolize the lives of the people who would go through the exile. Even the act of cutting his hair was significant because a priest was not allowed to do so under the law (Leviticus 21:5). This was a shock and shame moment for Ezekiel.
He was to take scales and divide up the hair he cut off. This showed that not everyone would face the same troubles during the exile. It is important to recognize that the whole nation deserved the worst, but not everyone would experience it. As a nation as a whole, the Hebrews had broken their covenant with God, and all of them deserved the consequences of breaking that covenant. But even as they were being judged, God showed grace and did not give all the Israelites everything they deserved.
God told Ezekiel to burn a third of the hair in the fire inside the city when the days of his siege were completed. He was reenacting the siege of Jerusalem. His actions were intended to serve as a visual aid for the people watching. The act of burning the hair reminded the people of the ascending offerings they had been commanded to sacrifice in the temple. It was a reminder that sin is a serious matter and requires complete sacrifice. Sin requires atonement. The burning hair would also be a reminder in their nostrils.
Ezekiel was to take another third of the hair and slash it with a sword all around the city. The sword was a symbol of the armies that would come and put the citizens of Jerusalem to death by the sword. This act of slashing the hair with a sword was meant to visually depict that there would be nowhere to hide. No place was a safe sanctuary.
But those who would be lucky enough to escape the sword in the city would still not be safe. Ezekiel was told to scatter a third of the hair to the wind, and God would unleash a sword behind them. Notice that God said that he was the one doing this. The soldiers wielding swords would be Babylonian, but God is the one sending them. He is sending out soldiers to hunt down and kill even those who thought they had escaped the judgment by fleeing Jerusalem.
Ezekiel is also told to take a few strands of his hair from those he had scattered and tie them to the ends of his robe. These represented the few who would be preserved through this whole ordeal.
Finally, the LORD told Ezekiel totake more of the hair and throw it into the fire to burn it up. He said that from there, a fire will spread to all the house of Israel. The conflict, suffering, and dying would spread across the whole nation, not just the capital.
The LORD’S explanation to Ezekiel (5-8).
The LORD explains the symbols by telling Ezekiel that they begin in Jerusalem: God placed that city at the center of the nations, with countries all around it. Then it defied his regulations and his statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around it.
So, because it was more arrogant than the nations around it, God declares that he is against it. He will execute judgment from that city while the nations watch.
Some would die during the siege from starvation or disease. Others would die when the foreign soldiers took the city. Others would find a way to escape and go into exile. But even there, the sword will follow them. Only a very few, a remnant of survivors, will escape this calamity. Ezekiel’s robe would have a few stray hairs attached to its tassels. These would represent the few who escape. They will not escape because they are righteous. They will only escape because God has a plan for that nation, so some must remain.
How should we apply this text?
I know it’s hard to read these Old Testament passages. The symbolism is difficult to figure out. The stories are less familiar. The historical background is more challenging. But God gave us the whole Bible because its message is important.
So, here is something to consider as we mull over the message in today’s text:
God wanted Israel to represent his righteousness. But when they refused to do that, God allowed them to represent his wrath. Those of us who call ourselves Christians have the same option. Matthew chapter 25 is all about those who claim to be saved, and the fact that many will discover that their faith is not real, and Jesus does not know them.
In the parable of the ten virgins. There was going to be a wedding, and they knew that they would have to wait a long time for the bridegroom to show. The intelligent ones prepared themselves for the wait. They brought extra oil for their lamps, so that the bridegroom would recognize them and invite them to the feast. The thoughtless ones did not bring extra oil. When the oil in their lamps ran dry, they had to go to the market to replenish it. That is when the bridegroom came, and they were not allowed into the party.
In the parable of the talents, each servant was praised who took what he had been given and invested it in his master’s service. But the lazy one was thrown out.
The sheep and the goats story reminds us that our genuineness will be proven not by what we profess but by how we treat others. He did not say that our good works will save us. He said that how we treat others will demonstrate whether or not our profession is real.
The gospel message is that salvation is always by grace. We are all represented in today’s text by the few stray hairs attached to Ezekiel’s robe. When we stand before the judge on Judgment Day, not a one of us will be able say that he should let us in because of how good we were. What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Ruth 1:1 It happened in the days of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while.
Ruth 1:2 The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the fields of Moab and settled there.
Ruth 1:3 Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons.
Ruth 1:4 Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years,
Ruth 1:5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her sons and without her husband.
Ruth 1:6 She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the country of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that Yahveh[1] had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food.
Ruth 1:7 She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.
Ruth 1:8 Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May Yahveh show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me.
Ruth 1:9 May Yahveh grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.
Ruth 1:10 They said to her, “We plan on returning with you to your people.”
Ruth 1:11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands?
Ruth 1:12 Return home, my daughters. Go on, because I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,
Ruth 1:13 would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, it is much too bitter for you to share, because Yahveh’s hand has turned against me.”
Ruth 1:14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
Ruth 1:15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”
Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you, because wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
Ruth 1:17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahveh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.
Ruth 1:18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped discussing it with her.
Ruth 1:19 The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
Ruth 1:20 “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “because the Almighty has made me very bitter.
Ruth 1:21 I went away full, but Yahveh has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
Ruth 1:22 So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
“Chapter 1 is a story of sorrow. Everything is falling apart, but there is still hope because of Ruth, who has put her faith in the living God. She tells Naomi, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God” (v. 16).”
Wiersbe Warren W. Put Your Life Together : Studies in the Book of Ruth. Victor Books 1985.p. 10.
Judges 21:1 But the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah: “None of us will give his daughter to a Benjaminite in marriage.”
Judges 21:2 So the people went to Bethel and sat there before God until evening. They wept loudly and long,
Judges 21:3 and cried out, “Why, Lord God of Israel, has it happened that one tribe is missing in Israel today?”
Judges 21:4 The next day, the people got up early, built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.
Judges 21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who of all the tribes of Israel didn’t come to Yahveh in the collection?” Because a great oath had been taken that anyone who had not come to Yahveh at Mizpah would certainly be put to death.
Judges 21:6 But the Israelites had compassion on their brothers, the Benjaminites, and said, “Today a tribe has been removed from Israel.
Judges 21:7 What should we do about wives for the survivors? We’ve sworn to Yahveh not to give them any of our daughters as wives.”
Judges 21:8 They asked, “Which city among the tribes of Israel didn’t come to Yahveh at Mizpah?” It turned out that no one from Jabesh-Gilead had come to the camp and the collection.
Judges 21:9 For when the roll was called, no men were there from the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead.
Judges 21:10 The congregation sent twelve thousand capable sons there and commanded them: “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead down with the sword, including women and dependents.
Judges 21:11 This is what you should do: Exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sex with a man.”
Judges 21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not had sex with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
Judges 21:13 The whole congregation sent a message of peace to the Benjaminites who were at Rimmon Rock.
Judges 21:14 Benjamin returned at that time, and Israel gave them the women they had kept alive from Jabesh-Gilead. But there were not enough for them.
Judges 21:15 The people had compassion on Benjamin, because Yahveh had made this gap in the tribes of Israel.
Judges 21:16 The elders of the congregation said, “What should we do about wives for those who are left since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?”
Judges 21:17 They said, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.
Judges 21:18 But we can’t give them our daughters as wives” because the Israelites had sworn, “Anyone who gives a wife to a Benjaminite is cursed.”
Judges 21:19 They also said, “Notice, there’s an annual festival to Yahveh in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”
Judges 21:20 Then they commanded the Benjaminites: “Go and hide in the vineyards.
Judges 21:21 Watch, and notice when you see the young women of Shiloh come out to perform the dances, each of you leave the vineyards and catch a wife for yourself from the young women of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
Judges 21:22 When their fathers or brothers come to us and protest, we will tell them, ‘Show favor to them, since we did not get enough wives for each of them in the battle. You didn’t actually give the women to them, so you are not guilty of breaking your oath.'”
Judges 21:23 The Benjaminites did this and took the number of women they needed from the dancers they caught. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and lived in them.
Judges 21:24 At that time, each of the Israelites returned from there to his own tribe and family. Each returned from there to his own inheritance.
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever looked right to his own eyes.
Judges 21 quotes:
“The men of Benjamin are told that if the girls’ fathers object, the Israelites will try to convince them of the wisdom of not opposing the seizure of their daughters. No one will have broken the oath (21:1); no blood will have been shed in Shiloh. Why not aid in the process of reconciliation? Like the tale of Jephthah’s daughter, the tale of the women of Shiloh may well be an etiology for customs involving marriage, key passages in the lives of young women. In this case, the story describes a yearly “wife-stealing” ritual in which matches are made between men of Benjamin and daughters of Shiloh. Such rituals are common in other cultures (see Gaster 1981: 2:444-46).”
Niditch Susan. Judges: A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 210.
jeffersonvann 