Bibelgesprächskreis: Rut 3
The word mānôaḥ, “place of rest,” derives from the same root as mĕnûḥâ in 1:9 and speaks of the security and tranquility that a woman in Israel longed for and expected to find in the home of a loving husband.
The word mānôaḥ, “place of rest,” derives from the same root as mĕnûḥâ in 1:9 and speaks of the security and tranquility that a woman in Israel longed for and expected to find in the home of a loving husband.
The delicacy of the scheme is obvious, and the potential for disaster is extreme.
Now she turns around and lectures Boaz on his obligations to her! The reader stands back in awe, wondering what has possessed her. Here is a servant demanding that the boss marry her, a Moabite making the demand of an Israelite, a woman making the demand of a man, a poor person making the demand of a rich man. Was this an act of foreigner naïveté, or a daughter-in-law’s devotion to her mother-in-law, or another sign of the hidden hand of God?