The Pulpit Commentary — Ruth — Section 53

posit.ion which, as BoRz's wife, she would be K'ri, though faithfully preserving it in C'tib. required to fill. There was no levity about The partielos, standing up and semi-isolated, hor, "no nonsense." She was earnest, in- palreolithic-wiso, miglit b~ accounted for in dustrious, virtuous, strenuous, brave. There some such way e.s is shown in the following was much of tl1e h~roine in her character, parnphre.se: "And no·10 (I declare)' that' of a nnd thus the expression connects itself with truth (it is the case) 'that if' (I declare tho the masculine application of the distinctive wbolo truth) I (am) a kinsman, and also and many-sided word, " a mighty man of the1·e is a ki1tSman nea1·er than I." Boaz val,our." The expression '~t'J n~~ occurs was of that strictly honourable caat of mind in Prov. xii. 4, where, in Ring James's ver- that he could not for a moment ontertnin i;ion, it is, as here and in Prov. xxxi. 10, any project that might amount to 11 disregard translated "a virtuous woman"-"a virtuous of tho rights of others, oven although theso woman is a crown to her husband." But it rights should fly violently in the teeth of his is not so much to moral virtue that there is own personal desires. a reference as to that general capacity which Ver. 13.-Abide here to-night; and it consists in " lar-ge discourse, looking before shall come to pass in the morning, if he and after" (' Hamlet,' iv. 4). Compare the will act to thee the part of a kinsman, well; he shall act the kinsman's part : and masculine expression ,m...,~~~ in Exod. if it please him not to act to thee the rnii 21, 25, rendered, in Ring James's ver- kinsman's part, then sure as Ye.hveh is sion, " able men," and meaning capable or alive, I will act to thee the kinsman's part. .~ubstantial men, who, however, as we learn Lie still till the morning. Love is quick- from the additional characteristics that are witted. Boaz's plan of operations would specified, were to be likewise conspicuous for formulate itself on the spur of the moment ; high moral worth. In Prov. x.ui. 10 there but the remainder of the night would doubt- is the same reference to general capaci,t;y, as less be spent in maturing the details of pro- is evidenced by the graphic representation cedure. The aim would be to secure, e.s far that follows-a representation that by no e.s honour would permit, the much-wished- means exhausts itself in the idea of moral for prize. There would be, moreover, we virtue. Ibn Esra takes the whole soul out need not doubt, much conversation between of the expression when he interprets it, both them, e.nd mutual consultation, and arrange- here and in Proverbs, as meaning " a woman ment. A large letter, a majuscula, occurs possessed of riches." 'When Boaz says, "All in the first word of the verse-•,•~-which that thou sayest I will do to thee," he means, the smaller Me.sora a.scribes to the Oriental "All that thon hast so winsomely and yet so or BabyIonian textue.lists. It had, no modestly referred to in what thou didst say, doubt, been at first either a merely acci- I am prepared to do to thee." There was dental, or a finically capricious, enlargement; only one obstacle in the way, and that of a but, being found, mysteries had to be ex- somewhat technical description. If that cogitated to account for it ;-all mere rubbish. should be honourably surmounted, nothing "To-night" is a ·perfect translation of would be more agreeable to Boaz's heart than to get nearer to Ruth. "For," said he, "it M~;~::t, for the to is simply the common is on all hands known in the gate of my definite article in one of its peculiar forms, people that," &c. Literally the phrase is, perhaps peculiarly crushed and defaced (see "for all the gate of my people know," a note on eh. iii. 2). strangely inverted but picturesque mode of Ver. 14.-And she lay at the place of his expression. It was not "the gate of the feet nntil morning : and she arose ere yet a people," but "the people of the gate," that man could distinguish his neighbour. In knew. the original it is "the places of his feet" Ver. 12.-A.nd now it is the case of a (see ver. 4). Time would rapidly fly past. truth that while I am a kinsman, there is yet Sleep there would be none to either the a kinsman nearer than L Or the rendering one or the other. In mutual modesty they might with greater brevity be given thns: guarded each other's honour. Thoughts and And now of a truth I am a kinsman ; and feelings, narratives and projects, would be yet there is a kinsman nearer than L The freely interchanged. Their mutual under- survivals of a very ancient style of elabor- standing would become complete. At length ately-detailed composition a.re here preserved. there began to be the first faint tinge of The archaism, however, was not quite ap- paleness streaking into the dark. Ruth preciated by the Mazorites, who, in accordance arose, and prepared to depart. It is added, with the spirit of the age in which they For he had said,-or, more literally, "And flourished, took but little note of the he had said,"-Let it not be known that philological development, historical and ' the ' woman oa.me to the threshing-1loor. preh1Storice.l, of the language they were This has been to critics a puzzling clause. handling. Heoce they suppressed the .0~ io The conjunction in the foreground, a mere OH. IIT. 1-18. 1 THE BOOK OF RUTH. 51