Ruth 2:14-18
Pull Out Some Stalks for Her
14At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
15When Ruth got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not insult her.
16Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.”
17So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley.
18She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.
Berean Standard Bible
At mealtime Boaz calls her over to eat. Ruth is a gleaner, and gleaners come along behind the harvesters rather than sitting down with them, so this is a line she has no business crossing. He crosses it for her. She is put in among the workers, given bread and vinegar sauce, and handed roasted grain by the owner.
she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
Three things happen in one short clause, and the third one goes home with her. She ate, she had enough, and there was food in front of her that she did not need. The woman who walked out that morning hoping to be allowed to pick up scraps finishes her lunch with more than she can hold.
She gets up and goes back to work, and Boaz turns to his young men and gives an order behind her. Let her gather among the sheaves, he tells them, and do not insult her. The sheaves are the harvest itself, cut and tied and stacked, and letting a gleaner work in among them is already more than anybody was obliged to allow. Then he goes further.
Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.
He is telling his men to undo work they have already finished, take grain back out of tied bundles, and drop it on the ground where a poor woman will come across it. Charity would be a sack handed over and a thank you collected. The law would be leaving the edges unreaped, which is not the same as unpicking what is already bound. He arranges for her to find far more than the field owed her, and arranges it so that every bit passes through her own hands. Because the order goes to the men and not to her, she works all afternoon without knowing, and never has to thank anybody.
She stays out until evening. Then she threshes what she has gleaned herself, after a full day and after the harvesters have gone home, and it comes out at about an ephah of barley.
She carries it into town, and her mother-in-law sees what a day in that field has produced.
And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.
There are the leftovers again. Ruth had been fed until she was full, and rather than finish the food she kept it back, carried it through an afternoon of gleaning, and walked it home. The first thing she does on arriving is feed the woman who told her she had nothing left to give anybody.
How We Know
The instruction in verses 15 and 16 goes past what the law asked, and the book does not tell us so. Read against Leviticus, it supports a deliberate step past the minimum rather than a generous reading of it, and why Boaz went that far is not stated.
Leviticus 19:9 requires a landowner to leave the edges of his field unreaped and to leave the gleanings. That is the ground Ruth was working on when she asked permission in verse 2.
What Boaz orders is different. He tells his men to let her gather among the sheaves, which are already cut and bound, and then to pull stalks out of the bundles and leave them for her. That is not leaving something unharvested. That is undoing harvested grain on purpose.
The narrator reports it without comment. He also has Boaz give the order to the men rather than to Ruth, and records no reply from her.
Questions
1 Do we find a kindness easier to accept when we know who did it, or when we do not?
AnswerBoth are awkward in their own way, and everybody at the table has a different honest answer. He decides the question for Ruth by making sure she never finds out, which spares her the thanking and the feeling of being a case somebody took on.
2 What does Boaz do at mealtime, and why is it out of the ordinary?
AnswerHe calls Ruth over to eat with the harvesters, gives her bread and roasted grain, and she eats until she has had enough with food left over. It is out of the ordinary because she is a gleaner. Verse 7 has her asking to glean after the harvesters, and verse 14 has Boaz calling her over to sit beside them.
3 What does he tell his men to do with the sheaves, and why not just hand Ruth the grain?
AnswerHe tells them to let her gather among the tied bundles without insulting her, and then to pull stalks out of those bundles and drop them for her to find. Handing her a sack would have made her a case. This way she gathers it herself, takes home far more than the field owed her, and keeps her own two feet under her.
4 What does Ruth do with the food left over from her meal?
AnswerShe carries it home and gives it to Naomi. She had eaten until she was full, and instead of finishing what was in front of her she saved it, kept it through an afternoon of work, and handed it to the woman who had said on the road that she had nothing left to give anybody.
What This Means for Us
Boaz had just prayed that the LORD would repay her work, and then he quietly became part of how it got paid. He tells his men to pull stalks out of the bundles and leave them, and he does not tell Ruth. She carries home an ephah of barley and no explanation for it.
That is usually how provision works. It arrives looking like a good day in a field, and the hand behind it stays out of sight, and the person carrying the grain home has no idea how much of it was arranged.
So think of one thing you could do for somebody this month that they will never trace back to you, and do not tell them. You will be doing what was done for you before you noticed it was being done.
Prayer
Father, we like our kindness noticed, and we arrange it that way more often than we admit. Thank you for a man who told his workers to drop grain where a poor woman would find it and let her think it was the field. Teach us to give without collecting. Amen.