nuncintion of the render. Michaelis, however in view to remain, dimly visible, in the (' Mosnisches Recht,' § 137), 11nd Gesenius shade. No doubt, however, she refers to ('Thesaurus,' in voc. ), instead of regarding the reapers, binders, gleaners, and other the absence of the yod as an instance of workers who might have to be encountered scriptio defectiva, have conjectured that "in another field." "Meaning," says homely ',~_lt;> is B noun, or ne.me, meaning the second Richard Bernard, "some lewd and lustful men whom Naomi would not so much as in order of the Goelim. But, notwith- make mention of." The verb :rl/Jl:I is often standing the ingenuity of the conjecture, there iB not a shadow of evidence to evince rendered in our English versi~nj~ll upon. that the Hebrews themselves ever knew of It originally means to light up011, whether such a word. Nor does the supposition or for good or for evil. subsumption of such 1.1 word in the least Ver. 23.-And she kept close by Boaz's facilitate the construction on the one hand, young women to glean. Wright translates or illumine tbe narrative on the other. thus: "And she kept gleaning along with the maidens of Boaz." But the maidens of Ver. 21.-And Ruth the Moe.biteee se.id. Boaz are not represented as gleaning. The It seems to us rather remarkable that Ruth historical statement of the verse is to be ex- should be here again particularised formally plained from the hortatory statement of ver. as "the Moabitess." There is apparently 8 : "Keep close to my young women." Till no discoverable reason for the re-repetition. the end of the barley-harvest e.nd the wheat- It is simply antique particularity, not amen- harveet. Ruth's gleaning labours extended able to any literary law-" the said Moab- to the close of the wheat-harvest, during itess." There is a peculiar abruptness in which time, no doubt, there would be fre- the initial words of what follows :-Yea quent opportunities for a growing intimacy also he said to me. Carpzov and Wright between the beautiful gleaner and the worthy understand them thus : " 'Yea' blessed be proprietor. Often too, we may rest assured, he, ' for ' he said to me." But the word would Boaz be a visitor in the humble home blessed, as used by Naomi, is too far re- of Naomi "The harvest upon the moun- moved to make it natural for the yea of tains," says Dr. Robinson, "ripens of course Ruth's remark to fall back upon it. Her later than in the plains of the Jordan and mind and heart were full. She was pro- the sea-coast. The barley-harvest precedes foundly affected by the kindness that had the wheat-harvest by a week or fortnight. been shown to her. Hence she piles up her On the 4th and 5th of June the people of representation. "Also," -so may I well Hebron were just beginning to gather t~eir speak,-"for he sai,d, to me." Xeep close wheat; on the llth and 12th the threshmg- by my young men, until thoy have :finished floors on the Mount of Olives were in full all my harvest. The " young men " are operation. We had already seen the harvest not here discriminated from the "young in the same stage of progress on the plains women" (see ver. 8). The idea, consequently, of Gaza on the 19th of May; while at Jericho, is not that Ruth was to keep close to them on the 12th of May, the threshing-floors in distinction from the young women. It had nearly completed their work" (' Biblico.J. was understood that she should work behind Researches,' vol. iL p. 99). "The Syrian the young women, who followed in the rear harvest," says Dr. W. M. Thomson, "ex- of the young men. But it was the express tends through several months. On the plain desire of Boaz thnt, instead of exposing of Philistia it commences in April and ends herself among strangers, on any adjoining in June ; and this not only gives ample harvest-fields, she ~hould maintain her posi- time, but it has this great advantage, that tion behind his re11pers as long as there the villagers from the mountains can assist remained any golden crops to re>'tp. the farmers on the pie.in, since their own Ver. 22.-And Naomi said to Ruth her crops are not yet ripe. I was struck with daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, this fact while nt Mesmia. Several Chris- that thou shouldest go with hie young tians from Bethlehem, who had thus come women, and that thou be not set upon in to reap, spent the evening at my tent, and another field. Here again we have the one of them explained to me the ndvnntages archaic repetition, "Ruth her daughter-in- from thus labouring on the plain. He not le.w." Naomi was grateful for Boaz's invit- only received wages for his own and his ation. Compliance with it would be "good," wife's le.hour, but his children were permitted both immediately and prospectively. In to follow after them and glean on their own particular, it would save Ruth from running account, as Boaz allowed Ruth to do in their the risk of being rudely handled by utter, and native village" (' The Land and the Book, perhaps rough and unprincipled, sh·angers. p. 544). When it is said, in the last clause "It is good," snys Naomi, "that 'they' rlo of tho verse, and she dwelt with her mother- not set upon thee in another field." She in-law, the reference is not to bo rcsL'ictrd uys ''they," but allows tho pnrt.ics she hn,l to the time that succeeded the 11crio,l ol 44 TRE BOOI\. OF RU1'H. [en. rr. 18-29.
har\"esting. The Yulgate indeed connects ~lept ~nywbere else than under her mother- the clause l'.ith the follomng verse and m-law s roof. Tho clause was written an- renders it," After she returned to herm~ther- parently, for tho very purpoMe of bri~ging in-la"!," pointing the verb thus ::l~r-Jl instead out clearly before the mind of tho reader of :l~l:)l. The same translation is given to her stainless i~1;1ocence, o.nd swcotsimplicity, the verb by Luther and Coverdale. But and never· tu-mg devotion to her nob1e there is no evidence whatever that Ruth mother-in-law.