What Does Ruth 2:14 Mean in the King James?
And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew holds two outcomes together: Ruth is satisfied, and food remains after she is full.
THE MEANING
You are welcomed close enough to eat, and the welcome reaches you as food that meets your hunger. You can be full and still have something left over; the verse holds sufficiency and surplus together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that an outsider may be allowed near but can never truly be provided for.
THE ROOT
וַתִּשְׂבַּע
wattisbaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
To be sated, to have enough.
“was sufficed” in this verse is wattisbaʿ. The verb comes from שׂבע (sabaʿ, to be sated) and marks the point at which hunger has actually been met. The next verb says food remains, so the verse moves from enough to surplus.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: Sated, full.
שָׂבֵעַ
This adjective names the state Ruth reaches after eating.
śōvaʿ: Satiety, fullness.
שֹׂבַע
The noun carries the same root into the idea of fullness itself, beyond a single meal.
וַתֹּתַר
vattōtar
GROWS FROM
יתר
To remain, to be left over.
The form belongs to יתר (yatar, to remain or be left over). Here the remainder is food still there after Ruth’s hunger is satisfied: fullness does not use up everything.
ALSO GROWS
yeter: Remainder, surplus.
יֶתֶר
This noun names what remains beyond what is needed.
hōtîr: To leave over, to cause to remain.
הוֹתִיר
This verb makes the same root’s sense of a remainder explicit.
THE PATTERN
A welcome becomes tangible when provision meets hunger and leaves enough to carry onward.
He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.THE THREAD
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.Ruth’s “was sufficed” and the psalm’s “satisfieth” both render שׂבע (sabaʿ, to be sated). Ruth’s grain fills a body until some remains; the psalm carries that same fullness into the hungry living soul filled with goodness.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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