SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:2
¿No es Booz nuestro pariente, con cuyas criadas tú has estado? He aquí que él avienta esta noche la parva de las cebadas.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Ruth 3:2
Verse 2. He winnoweth barley tonight] It is very likely that the winnowing of grain was effected by taking up, in a broad thin vessel or sieve, a portion of the corn, and letting it down slowly in the wind; thus the grain would, by its own weight, fall in one place, while the chaff, &c., would be carried to a distance by the wind. It is said here that this was done at night; probably what was threshed out in the day was winnowed in the evening, when the sea breeze set in, which was common in Palestine; and as this took place in the evening only, that was the time in which they would naturally winnow their corn.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 2. And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast ? etc.] He was, and her question supposes and concludes it, and which she observes, that Ruth might take notice of it, and encouragement from it; and the rather, since she had been admitted into the company and conversation of his maidens; and which was more, though not mentioned, into the company and conversation of himself, and whom Ruth knew full well; and who being, Naomi thought, the next nearest kinsman, and obliged by the law in ( Deuteronomy 25:5) to marry Ruth, with which view his relation is mentioned: behold, he winnoweth barley tonight in the threshingfloor ; which afforded a fit opportunity of meeting with him, being at night, and out of the city, from his own house, and alone, and after a feast for his reapers and threshers of corn, seems, from ( Ruth 2:7) as it was usual to have threshingfloors in an open place without the city, so to winnow at them, whereby the chaff was more easily separated from the corn, and that, in the evening, when in those countries there were the strongest breezes of wind to carry it off; hence the Targum here has it, “behold, he is winnowing the barley floor with the wind, which is in the night.” For before the invention and use of fans in winnowing, it was only done by the wind carrying off the chaff, as the oxen trod the corn, for it was done in the threshingfloor, as here: hence Hesiod advises that the threshingfloors should be cwrw en euaei , in a place exposed to wind; and so Varro f53 observes, the floor should be in the higher part of the field, that the wind might blow through it; to this manner of winnowing Virgil has respect.
Nor was it unusual for great personages, owners of farms and fields, to attend and overlook such service. Pliny reports, that Sextus Pomponius, father of the praetor and prince of the hither Spain, presided over the winnowing of his reapers; so Gideon, another judge Israel, was found threshing wheat, ( Judges 6:11).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-5 - The married state should be a rest, as much as any thing upon earth can be so, as it ought to fix the affections and form a connexion for life Therefore it should be engaged in with great seriousness, with earnes prayers for direction, for the blessing of God, and with regard to his precepts. Parents should carefully advise their children in thi important concern, that it may be well with them as to their souls. Be it always remembered, That is best for us which is best for our souls The course Naomi advised appears strange to us; but it was according to the laws and usages of Israel. If the proposed measure had borne the appearance of evil, Naomi would not have advised it. Law and custo gave Ruth, who was now proselyted to the true religion, a legal claim upon Boaz. It was customary for widows to assert this claim, D 25:5-10. But this is not recorded for imitation in other times, and is not to be judged by modern rules. And if there had been any evil in it Ruth was a woman of too much virtue and too much sense to have listene to it.
Original Hebrew
ועתה 6258 הלא 3808 בעז 1162 מדעתנו 4130 אשׁר 834 היית 1961 את 854 נערותיו 5291 הנה 2009 הוא 1931 זרה 2219 את 853 גרן 1637 השׂערים 8184 הלילה׃ 3915
