“her hap was, to light upon a part of the field belonging to Boaz.” An obsolete word that, “her hap,” for she happened. Presently we see the owner of the field coming from Bethlehem, and we hear his salutation to the reapers: “The Lord be with you; and they answered him, The Lord bless thee.”
Doubtless, in those ancient times, the people all lived together in towns and villages for mutual protection, as they did in Europe during the middle ages—as they still do, indeed, to the present hour, in many countries where isolated cottages and farm-houses are rarely seen, the people going out every morning to the fields to work, and returning to the villages at night. While looking over his reapers, Boaz remarks a gleaner, a young woman whom he had not yet seen; the other faces were probably familiar to the benevolent man, the poor of his native town, but this was a stranger. Now, it is nowhere said that Ruth was beautiful; very possibly she was not so; we have always been rather disposed to believe that of the two Orpah may have been the handsome one. The beauty of many women of the Old Testament is mentioned with commendation by the different writers of the sacred books, as that of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and a number more; but we are nowhere told that Ruth was “well favored.” We read of her devotion to Naomi; of her gentleness, her humility; of her modesty, for she did not “follow young men,” and all the people knew she was “a virtuous woman;” but not a word is uttered as to her being fair to look at. The omission is the more marked, for she is the principal character in a narrative of four chapters. With the exception of Sarah and Esther, no other woman of the Old Testament fills so large a space; and it will be remembered that the beauty of both Sarah and Esther is distinctly
