Vers. 12, 13.-" The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee." Here we see that the character of God is gloriously revealed. It is understood by Boaz that God is a God of "rewards," and we need not fear that a mistaken notion of rewards and punishments will prevail amongst students of the Bible. God's highest blessings are given to the soul ; but it remains true that even in the earthly life the outworking of duty is blessing. I. HERE IS THE HISTORI0 NAME. 11 The Lord God of Israel." What memories cluster around that significant sentence I We see in it a" miniature" of all Hebrew deliverance and mercy. II. HERE IS THE COMPREHENSIVE BLESSING. "A full reward." That must refer to the inner self-to the consciousness of heroic fidelity and filial love. Many rewards are precious, but no reward is full that does not II bless us in>IE'ed." III. HERE IS THE HOMELY ANALOGY. "Under whose wings," &c. All nature is taken into the illustrative record of the inspired word. The wing I How strong without. How easily outspread. How " downy " within. So soft I so warm I The rain cannot reach through the outward covering. Notice how roof-like are the arrangements of the feathers, and notice also how complete is the canopy. IV. HERE IS THE PERSONAL TRUST. "Thou art come to trust." We must not for- get not alone what God reveals himself as, to us, but what responsibility rests on U.'1 1 to" rest in the Lord."-W. M. S. 42 THE BOOK OF RUTH. [en. n. 18-23.
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER II. 18-28. reasoning or apparent reason, that the refer- ence of the refative is to Yahveh, and hence Ver. 18.-And she lifted it up, and went he makes out an ingenious argument in into the oity: and her mother-in-law beheld defence of the doctrine, that those who al'e what she had gleaned. She likewise brought dead to us are yet alive to God-the doctrine forth, and gave to her, what she had left of immortality. It is strained. Yet Raabe over after she was satisfied. It would be thinks that the reference is to Yahveh, inas- mth gratitude and pride that Ruth would much as Naomi he.cl 118 yet no evidence of Jet her heary burden slip off into the hands Boaz's kindness to the deceased. The reason of Neomi. It would be with gratitude and thus given for carrying the reference up to wonder that Naomi would behold the pre- God is certainly unsatisfactory ; for, looking cious load. Other gentle emotions would at the subject from the human point of view, stir ,nt.hin the mother-in-Jew's hungry heart it is obvious that Boaz's peculiar kindness when her beloved daughter-in-law produced to the living was his kindness to the de- and presented the rem11.ins of her delightfully ceased ; whereas, if we look at the case from refreshing repast at the _tent. ,, ~he. expres- the Divine point of view, it is difficult, if sion, "after she was satisfied, 1s literally, not impossible, to account for the discrimin- '' from her satiety." ation between the living and the dead. The Ver. 19.-A.nd her mother-in-law said to first feeling that sprang up in the heart of her, Where hast thou gleaned to-day 1 and Naomi at the mention of the name of Boaz where hast thou worked 1 :May he who was one of adoration. The next was e. took notice of thee be blessed! The grate- generous desire in reference to Boaz himself. ful eagerness of the mother-in-law to get full She prayed that he might be graciously information overflows in a delightful redund- recompensed by Y ahveh for the kindness he ancy. "Where hast thou gleaned to-day! had shown that day, both toward the living and where hast thou worked!" She saw at -Ruth and herself-and toward the de- a glance, from the magnitude of the load, ceased-Elimelech and his sons. .A man of from the bright and beaming connten01;1r:e of less noble nature might have been ready, in ber daughter-in-law, and from the delic!ous reference to relatives in reduced circum- parched corn which the master had given stances, to ignore the present,. a_nd to bury with his own hands, that the day had been in oblivion the past. _After gmng SC?P~ to crowned with peculiar blessings. The lines her feelings of e.doration and benediction, had fallen in pleasant places. Hence her Naomi, with the prompt and . practical womanly and motherly interest to get full directness of a trne woman, said to her particulars. Ruth, on her part, ~ould feel danghter-in-law, The mall:. is nea~ to us, as if a kind of inspiration had seized upon add.in~ immediately, and with a rapid _glance her tongue. And she showed to her mother- at bnght continaencies that were ID the in-law with whom she had worked, and she region of the pgssible, He is one of our said The name of the man with whom I peculiar kinsmen (our Goelim). ~he meant worked to-day is Boaz. A thrill would s~~ot that he was one of those peculiarly near through Naomi's heart as that once familiar kinsmen who had a right of redemption name fell upon her ears. over whatever lands may have formerly be- Ver. 20.-A.nd Naomi said to her daugh- longed to her, and the first right of pur9h11:3e ter-in-law, Blessed 'of' Yahveh be he over whatever lands might yet remam m who-. The expression is literally, "Blessed the possession of herself or of her daughter- 'to' Yahveh be he who " that is, "Blessed in-law. Naomi and Ruth, tho1;1gh greatly in relation to Yahveh be he who," or reduced in circumstances, and pamfully p~nt "Blessed be he ! I carry th~ desire and pray~r up in present straits, were far from bemg up to Yahveh," which Just amounts, rn paupers. They were proprietors (see eh. iv. meaning, to this: "Blessed 'by' Yahveh be 3 6). But their property was not, for the he who." See other instances of the same time being available for income or susten- construction in Gen. xiv. 19, and Ps. cxv. ance It had either been farmed out on 15. Who has not let go his kindneaa to the usufruct or allowed to lie waste. In the living and to the dead. Some take these words to be descriptive of Yahveh. Others absence of the yod in ~~?1~l~ we have an tako them to be descriptive o~ Boaz.. If instance of scriptio dejeetiva, as dis1;inguished they be regarded in the former pomt of view, from scriptw plena. Such defective manu- then the foregoing clause must be rendered, scription might be ~XJ;lected to occ~r o~ca- not "Blessed by Yabveh be he who," but, sionally in transcnption from clictat1on, " Blessed be be by Y ahveh who." Dr. when as here the presence or the absence Cassel nssumes, but without any for::rnl of th~ letter n'.iade no difference in the rro• OB. ll. 18-23,] '!'HE BOOK OF RUTH. 43