Ruth 2:17-23 – “My Daughter”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁷And she gleaned in the field until the evening and she threshed [that] which she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸And she carried and she came [to] the city and her mother-in-law saw [that] which she had gathered and she brought out and she gave to her [that] which she had spared from her fullness. ¹⁹And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean (intensively) today and, oh, please, [where] did you work? Blessed be the one noticing you.” And she made known to her mother-in-law whom she had worked with and she said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today [is] Boaz.” ²⁰And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by the LORD, who has not left his kindness to the living and to the dead” and Naomi said to her, “The man [is] near to us. He [is] [one of] our kinsman-redeemers.” ²¹And Ruth the Moabitess also said, “He said to me, ‘Stay near my young men until they finish the all of my harvest.’” ²²And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “[It is] good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women and not will they (masc. pl.) hurt you in the field of another. ²³And she clung to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the harvest of the barley and the harvest of the wheat and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

The jewels just keep coming. Verse 17 tells us much. Ruth gleaned “until the evening.” In Hebrew the word for “evening” refers to dusk or sundown. So Ruth apparently worked from sunrise to sunset, probably on the order of a 12-hour day. This would not have been unusual in that culture but still, Ruth did it and she did it willingly. It’s hard to imagine working stooped over for 12 straight hours in the hot sun, especially knowing that you’ll get up tomorrow (early) and do it again. But that’s our Ruth.

When she threshed it, she found she had gathered about an ephah. In Exodus 16, the Israelites were to gather one omer of manna for each person per day. At the end of that chapter we’re told an omer was one-tenth of an ephah. So an ephah was enough food for one person for ten days, or (in Ruth’s case) two people for five days. It was suggested that gleaning after the harvesters usually only would have provided enough for Ruth and Naomi for a single day. For her to get five days was bounteous.

For whatever it’s worth, it has been suggested that “five” is the number of grace in the Bible. I don’t know if that is true but I will start watching. Interesting that it occurs here. Someone noted that David put five stones in his bag, knowing he’d probably only have time to sling one. Why? If it is true that the Jews regarded five as the number of grace, it might make sense. Will keep watching. Our Lord does all things “decently and in order.” I’m never surprised to find that order showing up in a myriad of different ways.

Note again that Ruth carried her ephah back to the city. An ephah is estimated to be just less than a bushel. A bushel of barley weighs 48 pounds. Ruth’s load probably weighed about 40 pounds. Sometime pick up a five-gallon jug of water – that’s about 40 pounds. I’m a man and I wouldn’t want to have carry 40 pounds very far. Then what did this young woman have to carry it in? The load would be heavy even in a nice modern backpack, designed to distribute the weight on one’s shoulders. But Ruth had no such contrivance. She may not have even had a basket, not having expected to get any more grain than she could have carried in a fold of her shawl. Regardless, it would have been heavy. And she had to carry it after having worked all day in the hot sun to begin with. Once again, that’s our Ruth.

Then we find, she is not only a hard worker, she is also surprisingly unselfish. She actually kept her roasted grain from lunch and brought it back to Naomi. Think about that. After working all day, she had to be famished. And there was that roasted grain all ready to eat. The barley would have to be prepared in some way, even after she got home. No one would fault her if she had gone ahead and eaten the remaining roasted grain herself. She’s worked all day. She deserves it. And she’s bringing home a week’s worth of food, for crying out loud! What more could anyone ask? Yet our tired hungry girl kept her “doggie-bag” from lunch and brought it home and gave it to Naomi. She just proves that “kindness brooks no rules.” She just is kind because she’s got a heart full of love. That’s our Ruth!

Well does Naomi call Ruth “my daughter” in verses 2 and 22. Interesting that Boaz calls her, “my daughter” too in verse 8. I find myself having the same feelings as I read about Ruth. Anyone would be honored to have her for a daughter. I’ve noticed the same feelings at work as I’ve grown old enough to be the young women’s father. When I observe one who is consistently a hard worker and a pleasant person, I have to remind myself, “She’s not my daughter. She is a co-worker.” I’m not at all surprised that these two “older” people (Naomi and Boaz) address Ruth as “my daughter.” My own daughters are both hard workers who have always made me proud, but I have to say, I would love to add this Ruth to my family (I already have a Ruthie! Ruth 1 and Ruth 2, I guess!).

Again a couple of “for whatever it’s worth’s” – Ruth is called “my daughter” 3x in this chapter. Interesting that 3 is definitely God’s number. I wonder if, even as I notice that, the Lord doesn’t have a little twinkle in His eye. “Ah, you caught that,” He says. “Yes. She’s my daughter too!”

Finally notice that Ruth kept up this routine until the end of not only the barley harvest but the wheat harvest as well. It is reported that the barley harvest began about the time of Feast of Passover, while the wheat harvest ended with the Feast of First-fruits, some seven weeks later. If Ruth gathered an ephah a day, working six days a week for the seven weeks, she would have gathered enough grain for her and Naomi to last over six months!

But then think about that too – that she probably not only gleaned from sunrise to sunset on this one hot day. She probably did it all day, every day (except Sabbaths) for seven weeks straight. That is one very, very hard worker.

That’s our Ruth. I’m very proud of you, my daughter.