1 There was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. 2 So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
We read of no mischief. "The extraordinary piety of Ruth was discovered by secluding herself from all giddy women of her own age, and the vain amusements of life. She affected no decorations of her person with a view to please, because she wanted to please the Lord alone. She sought no companion but her mother [by marriage and devotion, a kind of adoption], and desired to gain no knowledge in comparison of the knowledge of God. These are all inestimable qualifications when proceeding from a heart deeply impressed with divine things." (Joseph Sutcliffe)
"Unacquainted with the neighborhood as she was, she simply turned her footsteps to the first field she struck, but God guided her in her selection." (Paul E. Kretzmann) "Ruth's plan to secure favor (Ruth 2:2) was a plan to obtain food. She did not realize how favored she would become. God commanded farmers in Israel not to harvest the corners of their fields so the poor and needy, such as aliens, widows, and orphans, could glean enough food to live (Lev. 19:9-10; 23:22). The reapers were free Israelites who hired themselves out to do this work for a stipulated payment. [Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions] Ruth qualified for gleaning as an alien and as a widow. She submitted her plans for Naomi's approval and received her blessing." (Constable Notes) "And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz" etc. "So she was accidentally or providentially led to that part of the cultivated country which belonged to Boaz." (Adam Clarke)
4 Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered him, “The Lord bless you!”
5 Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7 And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house
The godly exchange of Israelitish master and servants. "Yahweh be with you;"- in your work; "Yahweh bless you."- in His harvest. "They expressed and professed their piety, even in their civil conversation and worldly transactions; which now so many are ashamed of, and call it hypocrisy or vain ostentation thus to do." (Matthew Peake) When Boaz inquired of the young woman, "the overseer praised both the humility and the diligence of Ruth, including the propriety and the reserve of her demeanor. It appears, then, that Boaz freely permitted the poor to glean on his fields [according to the torah], and that his overseer had taken his cue from his master, feeling very kindly disposed toward those in need, especially if they were, as in this case, humble and respectful." (Paul E. Kretzmann) To allow such as commanded by the law was spiritual.
Paul testified: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." (Romans 7:14)
Much of Israel's trouble came from disregard of a related command to give the land it's sabbatical rest every seven years and to declare the jubilee ever seven sevens of years. Failure therein led to captivity, revealing the condition of the heart. The seventh day sabbath is a similar command, actually being part of of the moral code for all. There is an infinite blessing in the Sabbath.
“The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” Psalm 19:8-9
"This chapter focuses on the fact that Ruth came across Boaz’s field by chance, as a consequence of which a relationship built up between herself and Boaz, something which resulted in his showing great generosity towards Ruth, thereby awakening in Naomi the hope that he would play the part of a kinsman [according the torah] by marrying Ruth and bearing children on behalf of the deceased husband, thus preserving the family’s name and possession of land in Israel." (Pett)
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” 10 So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” Boaz beckoned Ruth to look to no other place for provision and granted her special privilege, not as a stranger but as a daughter. “Normally the poor migrated from field to field to glean. However, Boaz graciously made Ruth one of his maidservants (Ruth 2:8-9; Ruth 2:13), so she would not leave his field, and so he could provide for her needs more easily and fully. [Then] ’Boaz is hereby instituting the first anti-sexual-harassment policy in the workplace recorded in the Bible.’ [Block]” (Constable Expository Notes) “And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” Not only bread and protection only, but water. Come to my fountain when thirsty. So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, “honouring Boaz as a prince and venerable father” (Joseph Sutcliffe) , and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, ‘since I am a foreigner’?” — a stranger of whom you know nothing. “Every saint may say with admiration as he did in John 14:22, ’Lord, how is it that thou hast manifested thyself to us, and not unto the world?’” (Trapp) But Boaz knew all about Ruth’s heart revealed in her kind acts towards Naomi. And he knew that she was a proselyte to the Jewish religion, “and was therefore entitled to fill the privileges of a child of Abraham.” (Charles Simeon) And so that is why he had showed her favor. “May 'Yahweh repay your work', and a full reward be given you by Yahweh God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” Repay your work-- indeed Paul taught: "but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who 'will render to each one according to his deeds.' (Psalm 62:12)" (Romans 2:5-6) Ruth “kept the object of her faith constantly in view: it was the promise of the Lord to His people, and under His wings she had come to trust. She therefore attended His worship that she might learn the law, and become acquainted with the grace and comfort afforded by His Word. Fine example… and worthy of imitation.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “How sweet and precious are all the tokens of Jesus to His people! Doth He not, as in the case of Boaz to Ruth, speak personally to everyone of them? Is it not Jesus Himself that doth in reality speak when His Word comes home with power to the heart'? And is not this the longing desire of every truly awakened soul? Let me hear Thy voice, ‘The companions hearken to Thy voice; cause me to hear it.’ Song of Solomon 8:13. 'My sheep (saith Jesus) hear My voice, and they know My voice. A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers.' John 10:3-5. But this is not all. Jesus bids the poor seeker not to glean in another field. No, blessed Lord! there is no other we need to glean in, nor any other in which the true bread of life can be found, ‘There is salvation in no other, neither is there any. other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we mast be saved.’ Acts 4:12. But in Jesus there is all fulness, all-sufficiency. Bread for the hungry, and water for the thirsty. We may go therefore to the earthen vessels which the ministers hold the sacred treasure in, and draw with joy from the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
13 Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.” 14 Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back. 15 And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.” 17 So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 18 Then she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied.
“Ruth gratefully acknowledges that he has comforted her by speaking kindly to her, lit. speaking to her heart (cf. Hosea 2:14, Isaiah 40:2). She was a stranger in a strange land, not without memories of home, and she needed to be comforted… Yet her home was now, in truth, where Naomi was, and her refuge under the wings of Yahweh, the God of Israel (Ruth 2:12). Ruth… [in the eyes of the law an Israelite] is invited to dip her morsel in the vinegar along with the reapers of Bethlehem, though the orthodox Jew has always avowed to the Gentile, ‘I will not eat with thee, drink with thee, nor pray with thee.’” (Arthur Peake) “The kindness of Boaz is further seen in his instructing his harvesters to let Ruth glean even among the sheaves and also to let grain fall purposely for her (vv. 15-16).Thus the Lord will encourage the faith of His people [spiritual] Israel during the time of tribulation. Boaz might have simply given a large amount of grain to Ruth, and save her the work of gleaning and beating out the grain, but he wisely left her with work to do, while encouraging her in seeing that her work was not in vain.” (L. M. Grantt) Let us likewise work the end-time harvest.
“So she gleaned in the field—and beat out that she had gleaned— Ruth availed herself of the goodness of Boaz. She gleaned all the day; and then, according to the custom of those times, she beat out, with a rod, the corn, which produced her an ephah.” (Thomas Coke) Notice that Ruth not only brought the harvest to Naomi but also the part of the meal. (18b) She shows that her motives were more for Naomi’s sake and Israel’s than her own. Not for our glory Lord, but for yours.
19 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.” 21 Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also said to me, ‘You shall stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” 22 And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field.” 23 So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.
“Ruth returned with more than three pecks of barley, and related to her mother the happy adventures of the day. Naomi, better acquainted with the laws and customs of Israel than the daughter, augured more from the kindness of Boaz than Ruth had been able to conceive. She apprized her of the duties of a near kinsman [first] in raising up issue to a deceased brother or cousin, who had died without an heir; and [second] that the right of redeeming Elimelech’s property belonged to Boaz.” (L. M. Grantt) “If an Israelite was compelled by poverty to dispose of his property, such a kinsman could compel the purchaser to sell it back (Leviticus 25:25, 47-48); the object of the law being to preserve each family in possession of its land. Naomi felt that Providence was not only showing loving-kindness to her daughter-in-law and herself, but also to her husband and sons, by bringing about the prospect of the land which had once belonged to them again being called by their name.” (John Dummelow)
“From that moment she encouraged Ruth to accept of the good man’s invitation to glean in his field, the whole of both the harvests. Happy are those children who have a wise and aged parent to direct them in the affairs of life, and especially to give counsel in the eventful crisis of marriage. Wisdom in that case is often more to be esteemed than honour and fortune. It is a treasure which cannot be valued; for God has promised to guide his people in all the dubious steps of life. If the good man will keep a command of his passions, let reason operate, and seek the Lord by fervent prayer, He will guide him in judgment, and liberally bless him with wisdom from above.” (Grantt)
“Boaz, as we have said, was described as the next-of-kin [a type of Christ]—literally, the Goel—and to their own Goel all the distressed families of Israel had a right to look. Blessed be God, we have been invested in that right by Jesus Christ. He desires to be looked to; He invites our appeal; He says in effect: Tell Me how your land is situated, what burdens rest upon it; tell Me what are your domestic conditions: is the father dead? Is the house full of widowhood and orphanhood, and all forms of distress? Relate all the circumstances to me; I am your next-of-kin, and I will deliver and redeem, avenge and bless. Into His ever-listening ear pour all the tale of human want and woe, as speaking to One Who is akin—next-of-kin—the Goel of humanity. We need the assurance that there is some such Goel. At times all things seem to be against us, and no voice is lifted up in our defence and for our comfort: all men seem to forsake us and flee. In that hour we need some such inspiration as comes from the assurance that our next-of-kin—our Goel—will never leave us nor forsake us. When we need Him most He is nearest to us.” ("The People's Bible" by Joseph Parker)