Commentaria in Ruth
Chapter 2. Synopsis of the Chapter
Ruth gleans ears in the field of Booz, and is kindly received and fed by Booz; returning home she brings the remnants to her mother-in-law Noemi, and hears from her that Booz is her kinsman.
1. Now Elimelech had a kinsman, a powerful man, and of great wealth, named Booz. 2. And Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother-in-law: If thou wilt, I will go into the field, and glean the ears of corn that escape the hands of the reapers, wheresoever I shall find grace with a master of a family that will be gracious to me. And she answered her: Go, my daughter. 3. She went therefore, and gleaned the ears of corn after the reapers. And it happened that the owner of that field was named Booz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. 4. And behold he came out of Bethlehem, and said to the reapers: The Lord be with you. And they answered him: The Lord bless thee. 5. And Booz said to the young man that was set over the reapers: Whose maid is this? 6. And he answered him: This is the Moabitess who came with Noemi from the country of Moab, 7. and she desired leave to glean the ears of corn that remain, following the steps of the reapers; and she has been in the field from morning till now, and hath not gone home for a moment. 8. And Booz said to Ruth: Hear me, daughter, do not go to glean in any other field, and do not depart from this place; but keep with my maids, 9. and where they reap, follow. For I have charged my young men not to molest thee; and if thou be thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink of the waters of which the young men drink. 10. She fell on her face and bowed down to the ground, and said to him: Whence is this to me, that I should find grace before thy eyes, and that thou shouldst vouchsafe to take notice of me, a strange woman? 11. And he answered her: All hath been told me that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law after the death of thy husband; and that thou hast left thy parents, and the land wherein thou wast born, and art come to a people which thou knewest not before. 12. The Lord render unto thee for thy work, and mayest thou receive a full reward of the Lord the God of Israel, to whom thou art come, and under whose wings thou art fled. 13. And she said: I have found grace in thy eyes, my lord, who hast comforted me, and hast spoken to the heart of thy handmaid, who am not like to one of thy maidservants. 14. And Booz said to her: At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. So she sat at the side of the reapers, and she heaped to herself frumenty, and ate, and was filled, and took the leavings. 15. And she rose from thence to glean the ears of corn as before. And Booz commanded his servants, saying: If she would even reap with you, hinder her not; 16. and let fall some of your handfuls of purpose, and leave them that she may gather them without shame, and let no man rebuke her when she gathereth them. 17. She gleaned therefore in the field till evening; and beating out with a rod and threshing what she had gleaned, she found about the measure of an ephi of barley, that is, three pecks. 18. Carrying which she returned into the city, and shewed it to her mother-in-law; moreover she brought out, and gave her of the remnants of her meat, with which she had been filled. 19. And her mother-in-law said to her: Where hast thou gleaned today, and where hast thou wrought? Blessed be he that hath had pity on thee. And she told her with whom she had wrought; and she said that the man’s name was Booz. 20. And Noemi answered her: Blessed be he of the Lord; for the same kindness which he showed to the living he hath kept also to the dead.
And again she said: The man is our kinsman. 21. And Ruth said: He also charged me, to keep close to his reapers, till all the corn should be reaped. 22. And her mother-in-law said to her: It is better, my daughter, that thou go out to reap with his maids, lest in another man’s field some one resist thee. 23. So she kept close to the maids of Booz; and she reaped with them till the barley and wheat were laid up in the barns.
1. A POWERFUL MAN AND OF GREAT WEALTH.—In Hebrew gibbor chail, that is, a man powerful or strong in might: so the Septuagint, that is, robust in body as in mind; or a man powerful in wealth: for chail also signifies this, and it is more apt here. For Booz was being prepared as a husband for marriage with Ruth, in which wealth is chiefly looked to.
3. SHE GLEANED THE EARS OF CORN AFTER THE REAPERS—as poor and hungry people do, who, after the crop has been cut and gathered into heaps, make a gleaning by picking up the fallen and remaining ears: which under the old law was not only lawful, but commended by God; indeed the reapers were commanded to leave some ears purposely to be gathered by the poor, Levit. xix, 9, and xxiii, 22. So Antigonus, succeeding Alexander the Great, used to say: “Alexander reaped, I glean.” So we also, after the harvest of so many Fathers and Doctors, make a gleaning of wisdom.
NAMED BOOZ.—In Hebrew Booz, says Pagninus in Hebrew Names, is the same as in strength; or in him is strength, that is, strong. Such was he here, as is clear from verse 4. Hence the Author of the Imperfect Work, hom. 4 on Matthew, interprets Booz as prevailing. Hence also the two pillars in the temple of Solomon were called Jachin and Booz, 3 Kings vii, 21, that is, direction and strength, as the Septuagint explain it, 2 Paral. iii, 17.
4. AND BOOZ SAID TO THE REAPERS: THE LORD BE WITH YOU—as if to say: May the Lord be present with you, work with you, bless you, strengthen you and prosper you. For the goodness of the harvest and of everything is to be expected and asked from God. Hence Varro, book I On Agriculture: “Since the gods,” he says, “help those who act, first to be invoked he wishes are the twelve Consenting Gods, not of the city but of the country, who are the leaders of husbandmen: Jupiter, Tellus, Sun, Moon, Ceres, Liber, Robigus, Flora, Minerva, Venus, Lympha and Good Event.”
Here first is found that form of greeting: “The Lord be with you,” which after Booz others used, wonderfully, as the Prophet sent by God to Asa king of Juda, when he was returning victorious with his army: “The Lord is with you, because you have been with the Lord,” 2 Paral. xv, and afterwards Gabriel, saluting the Blessed Virgin, saying: “The Lord is with thee,” and finally the Church introduced the same into the sacrifice of the Mass and the Ecclesiastical office: on which see Bellarmine, book II On the Mass, chapter xvi, and John Durandus, On the Rites of the Church, book II, chapter xv, and Blessed Peter Damian, Opusc. xi. Whence in book IV of the Rationale, chapter On the greeting of the people, Guillaume, bishop of Mende: “Mutual greetings of this kind,” he says, “mark that the priest and the people ought to have one affection. And the sense is: Thou art about to make prayers to the Lord for us; and because the Lord God approves and hears only those prayers that proceed from a good heart, we also pray likewise for thee, that he without whom there is no good may be with thy spirit, that he who is with thee in thy mouth may be also in thy heart and abide.” And he goes on: “It can also be said that in this answer the people refer themselves only to the action of the immolation, to which the priest proceeds, in which he ought to be wholly raised up in spirit and altogether withdrawn from all earthly things.”
And Isidore of Pelusium, book I, epistle 22: “That which is answered by the people: And with thy spirit, has this meaning: Thou hast granted us peace, O Lord, that is, mutual concord among ourselves. Give us peace, that is, such a union with thee as can in no way be torn apart, that being at peace with thy Spirit, whom thou didst put in us at the beginning of creation, we may not be torn away from thy charity.”
Finally in the Council of Braga, canon 24: “It has pleased us,” it says, “that bishops and priests salute the people not in one way and another, but in one way, saying: The Lord be with you, as is read in the book of Ruth.”
In household management, Booz, visiting his field and reapers, teaches masters to visit their estates and workmen often: “For under this fear, the steward will be at his duty with the household,” says Cato, On Agriculture, chapter ii. Hence Pliny, book VIII, chapter vi: “Our ancestors,” he says, “said that the eye of the master is the most fertilising thing in a field.” And Aristotle, book I of the Economics: “The best manure for fields,” he says, “is the master’s footsteps.”
AND THEY ANSWERED HIM: THE LORD BLESS THEE.—Learn here the ancient and pious form of greeting and returning greeting. The master, greeting the workmen first with courtesy, says: “The Lord be with you;” they dutifully return the greeting in other words, but of the same meaning: “The Lord bless thee,” that is, may the Lord likewise be with thee, and do thee good, and heap thee with his goods and prosper thee.
7. AND SHE DESIRED LEAVE (Ruth of the overseer of the reapers) TO GLEAN THE EARS OF CORN.—By law these ears were the poor’s; wherefore Ruth could gather them without asking; yet she preferred to ask, that she might bind the reapers more to herself, and make them more liberal in leaving her more ears.
10. AND BOWING DOWN—that is, showing him reverence by lowering the body, or bending the head.
12. TO WHOM THOU ART COME, AND UNDER WHOSE WINGS THOU ART FLED.—“Wings,” that is, care, protection, providence; for so chicks flee under the wings of the hen, that they may be protected from birds of prey. In like manner we ought to flee “to the wings,” that is, the protection of God, that we may be defended by him from all evils of body and soul, and from demons, according to the saying of David:
“Protect me under the shadow of thy wings,” Psalm xvi, 8. And: “He will overshadow thee with his shoulders, and under his wings thou shalt trust,” Psalm xc, 4. Hence Christ also says to Jerusalem: “How often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not?” Matth. xxiii, 37. See what I have said there. Hence the Chaldee here renders: Because thou hast come to become a proselyte and to hide (or separate) thyself under the shadow of the majesty of his glory.
13. I HAVE FOUND GRACE IN THY EYES, MY LORD—in that thou hast received and fed me so kindly. The Hebrew and Septuagint have it in the optative: May I find grace, and this is apt: for she wishes and asks that Booz may continue and prolong the grace shown to her.
WHO HAST COMFORTED ME, AND HAST SPOKEN TO THE HEART OF THY HANDMAID. (Heb. and Sept., because)—To comfort and to speak to the heart are the same, or almost the same, namely to speak pleasing, agreeable, delightful words, to console, to soothe.
WHO AM NOT LIKE TO ONE OF THY MAIDSERVANTS (Hebrew sephacoth, that is, handmaids).—Behold the wonderful humility of Ruth, who makes herself inferior to all the handmaids of Booz, and the handmaid of handmaids, and therefore deserved to become his wife. So the Blessed Virgin, saying: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word,” deserved to become the mother of God. Hence the Order of virgins commonly called the Annunciates, which Blessed Joan, daughter of Louis XI and wife of Louis XII, kings of France, instituted, calls the one who presides over the nuns the Mother Handmaid, just as St. Francis wished the superiors of his Order to be called Ministers, to fulfil that saying of Christ: “He that is greater among you shall be your servant,” Matth. xxiii, 11.
14. DIP THY MORSEL IN THE VINEGAR.—Note here the frugality of that age, in which workmen had no other relish or seasoning than vinegar, in which they dipped their bread and made a sop. For vinegar refreshes those labouring in the heat, braces the sinews, strengthens the powers, takes away putrefaction. Whence even now in Italy countrymen eat bread dipped in vinegar diluted with water, as a sop. “Even the fault of wine,” says Pliny, book XXIII, chapter i, “passes into remedies. Vinegar has the greatest power in cooling: yet no less in dispersing.” And afterwards: “Merely tasted, it dispels loathing, checks hiccups, and sneezing by its smell.” And Rashi: “Vinegar,” he says,
15. AND SHE HEAPED TO HERSELF—Ruth herself, Booz himself giving and heaping it into her lap, as the Septuagint and the Hebrew have it, for what he or his deputy gave abundantly, this she heaped up.
FRUMENTY.—Polenta in Hebrew cali, in Greek, is parched grain or barley. It was made thus, says Cato, in his book On Agriculture, chapter cvii: “They soaked barley with water and dried it for one night, the next day they bruised it, then ground it in mills and kept it for many days.” Hear Seneca, epistle 411: “Learn to be content with little, and cry out that great and spirited saying: Let us have water, let us have polenta. Let us dispute with Jove himself about happiness.” The same, epistle 48: “Water and polenta, he says, is not an unpleasant thing, or a piece of barley bread, but it is the highest pleasure to be able to take pleasure even from these.”
AND TOOK THE LEAVINGS—of the food and frumenty home to Noemi her mother-in-law, to feed her, verse 18. See how dutiful Ruth is, and therefore loved by Booz, raised up, and taken as his wife. So we see that those who are dutiful are loved and raised to great things.
20. FOR THE SAME KINDNESS WHICH HE SHOWED TO THE LIVING HE HATH KEPT ALSO TO THE DEAD—as if to say: As Booz did good to Elimelech my husband, and to his sons Mahalon and Chelion, as to his own kin, while they lived, so now he goes on doing good to them dead, while he is kind to their wives who survive, namely me Noemi and thee Ruth, and feeds and nourishes us.
THE MAN IS OUR KINSMAN.—In the Hebrew is added: he is one of our redeemers, or avengers, that is, of those to whom belongs the right of freeing us from bereavement, of redeeming our possessions, of vindicating the name of my sons and of thy husband from destruction and oblivion, by raising up seed and posterity to them, as is found in Levit. xxv, 25.
Where note: A kinsman is called in Hebrew goel, that is, redeemer, in three ways, namely of the field, of the wife, and of the inheritance, of fame and injury. Of the field, because if a field had been sold by anyone to a stranger, the seller’s kinsman had the right of redeeming the field, by repaying its price to the buyer who had bought it. Of the wife, because if anyone had died without children, his kinsman had the right, indeed the duty, of taking his wife, to raise up children to him, and thus redeemed her with his inheritance, and claimed her for himself. Of fame and injury, because if anyone had been killed by another, it belonged to the kinsman of the slain man to avenge his death, and to demand the slayer for death, and to prosecute him before the judges as guilty of death: so that in this way he might restore to the slain man as it were his right, that is, his fame and innocence.
22. IT IS BETTER, ETC., THAT THOU GO OUT WITH HIS MAIDS TO REAP—not that thou reap, but that thou join the reapers, to gather the fallen ears, as was said in verse 15 and following. Whence in the Hebrew there is no “to reap” : the explanation of Abulensis, who explains it so, has therefore no foundation, as if Noemi were saying: I advise you freely and without price, that by this service you may more easily win him to yourself, O Ruth my beloved daughter-in-law! that you may gain favour for your work, and prepare the way to marriage with Booz by reaping his crops, and lay open the road to entering upon it.