herself, and could justly value the kindness of others; she thanks the owner of the field, “for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid.” The word given here as friendly, is rendered in the margin “to the heart.” The phrase may be a common Hebrew expression, but it has a strength of feeling characteristic of the speaker. Blessed, indeed, are the lips that “speak to the heart” of the afflicted; and blessed is the sorrowing soul who hears them! Boaz asks the young widow to eat with his people at meal-time: “Eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar.” “And she sat beside the reapers, and he reached her parched corn.” The vinegar mentioned here is supposed to mean a kind of acid wine frequently named by ancient writers; and the parched corn was probably half-ripe ears of wheat or barley roasted in this way; a common article of food in the East during all ages. “And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not. And let fall some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them, and rebuke her not. So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned; and it was about an ephah of barley.” An ephah was about a bushel of our measure; and barley was a grain highly valued in Judea, where it was much used for food. A bushel seems a large quantity; but it is surprising what full sheaves some of the gleaners will carry home with them, now-a-days, and in fields where no handfuls are dropped on purpose. It was only when Ruth told her mother of her good success that she learned that Boaz was a near kinsman of her former husband, and, consequently, according to the Jewish law, one upon whom she might have claims.
