Ruth 2:21

And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) My young men . . . my harvest.—Emphatic in the Hebrew. As long as my reaping lasts, cleave steadily to us.

Benson Commentary

Ruth 2:21. Thou shalt keep fast by my young men — Or, young people, as the word נערים, negnarim, although of the masculine gender, here signifies, and particularly the maidens, to whom he bid her keep close, Ruth 2:8. And thus both the Seventy and the Chaldee expound it; and so Naomi, as appears by the next verse, understood it. Until they have ended all my harvest — Both barley-harvest and wheat-harvest. She tells what kindness Boaz had showed her; but not how he had commended her. Humility teaches not only not to praise ourselves, but not to be forward in repeating the praise which others have given us.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:17-23 It encourages industry, that in all labour, even that of gleaning, there is profit. Ruth was pleased with what she gained by her own industry, and was careful to secure it. Let us thus take care that we lose not those things which we have wrought, which we have gained for our souls' good, 2Jo 1:8. Parents should examine their children, as Naomi did, not to frighten or discourage them, so as to make them hate home, or tempt them to tell a lie; but to commend them if they have done well, and with mildness to reprove and caution them if they have done otherwise. It is a good question for us to ask ourselves every night, Where have I gleaned to-day? What improvement have I made in knowledge and grace? What have I done that will turn to a good account? When the Lord deals bountifully with us, let us not be found in any other field, nor seeking for happiness and satisfaction in the creature. We lose Divine favours, if we slight them. Ruth dutifully observed her mother's directions. And when the harvest was ended, she kept her aged mother company at home. Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land; her vanity ended in disgrace, Ge 34. Ruth kept at home, and helped to maintain her mother, and went out on no other errand than to get provision for her; her humility and industry ended in preferment.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Blessed be he of the Lord ... - We may gather from Naomi's allusion to the dead that both her husband and son had been faithful servants of Jehovah, the God of Israel. His kindness to the dead consisted in raising up (as Naomi hoped) an heir to perpetuate the name; and, in general, in His care for their widows.

One of our next kinsmen - The word here is גאל gā'al, the redeemer, who had the right:

(1) of redeeming the inheritance of the person;

(2) of marrying the widow;

(3) of avenging the death. (See Leviticus 25:25-31, Leviticus 25:47-55; Deuteronomy 25:5-10; Deuteronomy 19:1-13.)

Since these rights belonged to the next of kin, גאל gā'al came to mean the nearest kinsman.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. all my harvest—both barley and wheat harvests. The latter was at the end of May or the beginning of June.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Both barley and wheat harvest, as is said, Ruth 2:23.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Ruth the Moabitess said, he said unto me also,.... Besides the favours he has shown me already, he has given me reason to expect more, for he has given me this strict order:

thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest; both barley harvest and wheat harvest; his will was, that she kept following them, and gleaned after them, as long as both harvests lasted. The Septuagint version is, "with my maidens", and which agrees with Ruth 2:8, where the order of Boaz is expressed, and with the instructions of Naomi in the next verse, who so understood it; but if we understand it of young men here, there is no contradiction; for both young men and maidens wrought together in the same field, either in reaping or binding up; so that if she kept fast by the one, she also would do the same by the other.

Geneva Study Bible

And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - And Ruth the Moabitess said. It seems to us rather remarkable that Ruth should be here again particularized formally as "the Moabitess." There is apparently no discoverable reason for the re-repetition. It is simply antique particularity, not amenable to any literary law - "the said Moabitess." There is a peculiar abruptness in the initial words of what follows: - Yea also he said to me. Carpzov and Wright understand them thus: "'Yea' blessed be he, 'for' he said to me." But the word blessed, as used by Naomi, is too far removed to make it natural for the yea of Ruth's remark to fall back upon it. Her mind and heart were full. She was profoundly affected by the kindness that had been shown to her. Hence she piles up her representation. "Also," - so may I well speak, - "for he said to me." Keep close by my young men, until they have finished all my harvest. The "young men" are not here discriminated from the "young women" (see ver. 8). The idea, consequently, is not that Ruth was to keep close to them in distinction from the young women. It was understood that she should work behind the young women, who followed in the rear of the young men. But it was the express desire of Boaz that, instead of exposing herself among strangers, on any adjoining harvest-fields, she should maintain her position behind his raspers as long as there remained any golden crops to reap. Ruth 2:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Ruth proceeded to inform her of his kindness: כּי גּם, "also (know) that he said to me, Keep with my people, till the harvest is all ended." The masculine הנּערים, for which we should rather expect the feminine נערות in accordance with Ruth 2:8, Ruth 2:22, Ruth 2:23, is quite in place as the more comprehensive gender, as a designation of the reapers generally, both male and female; and the expression לי אשׁר in this connection in the sense of my is more exact than the possessive pronoun: the people who belong to my house, as distinguished from the people of other masters.