Ruth 4

July 9, Year 1

[16] Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse.

• In 3:15, Boaz gives Ruth six measures of barley, a number connected to procreation, as noted yesterday, pouring it into her shawl, perhaps into her lap, and puts it on her to carry to Naomi—all a gesture connecting seed and lineage.

• Boaz redeems the land/fields/earth and also takes Ruth as wife—the two are inseparable, a single gesture and symbol:

  • The land (feminine) takes seed (masculine) to multiply.

  • Ruth (female) receives the seed of Boaz (male) to multiply.

  • (Do not objectify her with modern eyes; she has NOT been a passive agent here!)

• After Obed’s birth: “Naomi took the child”—“the seed” of the line of Judah continuing—“and laid him on her lap and became his nurse.”

• (It may help to understand to think about “nursery” in the two senses of our English word—a place where young children are cared for during the working day, and a place where young plants are grown.)