Ruth 3:14-18

Ruth 3:14-18

[14] And she lay  at his feet  until the morning:  and she rose up  before  one  could know  another.  And he said,  Let it not be known  that a woman  came  into the floor.  [15] Also he said,  Bring  the vail  that thou hast upon thee, and hold  it, he measured  six  measures of barley,  and laid  it on her: and she went  into the city.  [16] And when she came  to her mother in law,  she said,  Who art thou, my daughter?  And she told  her all that the man  had done  to her. [17] And she said,  These six  measures of barley  gave  he me; for he said  to me, Go  not empty  unto thy mother in law.  [18] Then said  she, Sit still,  my daughter,  until thou know  how the matter  will fall:  for the man  will not be in rest,  until  he have finished  the thing  this day. 

What does Ruth 3:14-18 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Ruth had risked danger by sleeping on the threshing floor ( Ruth 3:14). Other people might have seen her and assumed that something bad was taking place. Evidently some of Boaz"s reapers were aware of her presence, but Boaz told them to keep Ruth"s presence there a secret ( Ruth 3:14).
"He knew that if it became known, town gossips would put the worst construction on the incident, just as some modern commentators do, thereby destroying Ruth"s reputation and perhaps his own." [1]
Boaz had previously given Ruth an ephah of barley to carry back to Naomi in addition to her gleanings ( Ruth 2:7). Now he gave her six measures of barley ( Ruth 3:18). The Hebrew text reads "six of barley" the word "measures" having been supplied by the translators. What measure the writer meant is therefore unclear. If it was the ephah, Ruth would have had to carry three and three-fifths bushels (over200 pounds) in the cloak (shawl, NIV). This seems unlikely. Perhaps the measure was a seah (one-third of an ephah) in which case Ruth carried about one and one-fifth bushels, 60 to95 pounds of grain, "an amount that would certainly be possible for a strong young peasant woman, accustomed to such burdens, to carry." [2] Perhaps the measure was six scoops made with both hands with a utensil used at the threshing floor. [3] It seems that Boaz was even more generous on this occasion than he had been previously. As before, Boaz"s gift of barley was a token of God"s blessing on Ruth and on Naomi through Ruth.
"The seed to fill the stomach was promise of the seed to fill the womb." [4]
The theme of rest concludes this chapter ( Ruth 3:18) as it began it ( Ruth 3:1). Boaz would not rest until he had provided rest for Ruth , the rest Naomi had sought for her. Until then, Ruth could only wait. Her waiting was a demonstration of her faith and a foretaste of the rest she would enter into shortly.
Likewise, Christians wait now until our Redeemer brings our redemption to completion when we shall rest finally and fully in His presence. Many writers have noted the parallels between Ruth and the church, the bride of Christ, and Boaz and Christ. [5]
Chapter3is all about how Ruth might find rest. The solution to her need was marriage to Boaz that we see planned in this chapter but realized in the next.
". . . taken as a whole, the chapter taught that God carries out his work through believers who seize unexpected opportunities as gifts from God." [6]