GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
RUTH 3:4
4 When he lies down, notice the place where he is lying. Then go, uncover his feet, and lay down. He will tell you what to do.”
Naomi was suggesting something very bold here, but was it something sinful? Was she proposing that Ruth should be sexually intimate with Boaz right there at the threshing floor?
We much acknowledge that promiscuity at harvest time was commonplace in Israel and in many other nations. Judah, the son of Jacob and ancestor of Jesus, went to a woman he thought was a shrine prostitute at sheep-shearing time after his wife died (Genesis 38:15-16). Harvest is also compared with dividing the spoils after a battle (Isaiah 9:3), when the soldiers or farmers could expect “a girl or two for each man” (Judges 5:30). But Boaz wasn’t like them. Besides being “a man of standing” (Ruth 2:1), he shows himself to be a righteous man, upstanding in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of the Lord. It can hardly be a coincidence that his descendant Solomon named one the pillars that stood before the temple entrance “Boaz,” probably after him (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chronicles 3:17).
Yet what exactly is meant by “uncovering his feet”? In context, it is clear that to Boaz this act would mean that Ruth wanted to become his wife. Some think that “feet” is a euphemism, a polite way of referring to the lower half of his body or parts of it. Yet there is no place in the Bible when the word for “feet” must be taken as a euphemism for something else. Two examples that are sometimes taken are 1 Samuel 24:4, when Saul “goes into a cave to “cover his feet,” and Judges 3:24 with the scene involving King Eglon. That’s a way of saying that someone was going to relieve himself, but “feet” in that context still refers to his feet (the image is probably of a long garment and the posture assumed, according to the Brown, Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon).
So to uncover the feet seems like it means… to uncover the feet. We don’t have any real reason to assume anything else was going to happen except that Ruth was to go to Boaz’ threshing floor that evening in the dark, after he had gone to bed. Then she was to pull the blanket or cloak away from his actual feet, and lie down there. The act of uncovering his feet would probably make them cold enough that he would wake up—and discover a woman there. It is still the custom in some middle eastern countries for a servant to sleep horizontally at the feet of his master. Ruth would have been asking for him, symbolically, to cover her with his blanket or cloak, and the act of doing this would be an act of protection and acceptance. But since she was a widow to be redeemed, this protection and acceptance would effectively be a promise to marry her. That was the act, and that was its meaning.
It is clear from the later reaction of Boaz that this upright man did not consider Ruth’s actions to be immodest or immoral, or sinful. Boaz went out of his way to tell Ruth that she was a “woman of noble character” (Ruth 3:11). They both were people who could say, “I have kept my feet from every evil path” (Ps. 119:101). Let’s let Scripture stand as it is. The Bible pulls no punches in showing sinners and calling them what they are. Even people who do not appear on the surface to be sinning are shown to be sinful (Matthew 23:27; Psalm 62:4). But Ruth is nowhere rebuked or condemned for her actions. Not that Ruth or Boaz were sinless, but this act is not condemned as a sin. Boaz will treat her proposal exactly as if it were the proper thing to do.
The custom of the day does not dictate the morality or rightness of an action. If something contradicts God’s law, it is sinful. In Ruth’s case, what happened was not a violation of God’s will and also appears to have been the custom. Notice that she, a foreigner, had to be coached by her mother-in-law, even though she had been married before. We don’t need to feel uncomfortable with what she did. After all, what will someone living centuries from now think of us and the custom of “getting down on one knee” to propose marriage? Will there be long dissertations written someday to prove or disprove that “getting down on one knee” could be a euphemism for something illicit? We should remember that Ruth and Boaz didn’t just live a few centuries ago. They lived more than three thousand years ago.
But we also need to remember that Naomi, Ruth and Boaz were all careful to be sure not to cause anyone else to sin by their actions. They did not want to give the wrong impression and make someone think they were engaging in sex outside of marriage. They were careful to take other people’s souls into account, and we can learn something valuable from that. How often do we concern ourselves with what someone else may think of our words or actions—especially someone who perhaps looks up to us, or sees us as an example? Consider that today as you continue your study of God’s word for you.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota