What Does Ruth 3:7 Mean in the King James?
And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.
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 lets a physical gesture carry more than one possibility: Ruth uncovers Boaz’s feet and lies down, while her purpose remains unspoken.
THE MEANING
A charged gesture can precede its explanation: the bodies are near, but the request is not yet spoken. The verse lets that uncertainty remain; what is visible does not by itself decide what the moment means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A charged physical gesture tells the whole story by itself; here, the words that follow are needed to name what is being asked.
THE ROOT
וַתְּגַל
vattegal
GROWS FROM
גלה
Uncover, expose, reveal.
“uncovered” in this verse is vattegal. English keeps the action physical, while this root also supplies the language of disclosure: the covering is removed and what lay hidden becomes visible. Ruth’s gesture opens that possibility, but the verse withholds what exactly is being disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
niglah: Be revealed, become visible.
נִגְלָה
It makes the root’s movement from covering to visibility explicit; Ruth’s action makes the moment visible before her purpose is spoken.
gilluy: Disclosure, revelation.
גִּלּוּי
This branch carries the physical uncovering toward an opening of meaning, while leaving the disclosure itself unfinished here.
וַתִּשְׁכָּב
vattishkav
GROWS FROM
שכב
Lie down, recline; in some contexts, lie with sexually.
“laid herself down” in this verse is vattishkav. The same verb ranges from ordinary reclining to sexual lying with. English can make the posture sound self-contained, but the Hebrew leaves the scene bodily and charged without declaring that a sexual act occurs.
ALSO GROWS
mishkav: Bed, place of lying.
מִשְׁכָּב
This branch keeps the action grounded in the physical posture of lying down.
shakab: Lie down; in some contexts, lie with sexually.
שָׁכַב
Its wider use leaves the scene open to sexual ambiguity without resolving it by the verb alone.
THE PATTERN
An uncovering brings what was hidden into view, making the response consequential.
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.THE THREAD
And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.The next verse turns the silent gesture into words: Ruth asks Boaz to spread his skirt over her because he is a near kinsman. The movement from uncovering his feet to asking for his covering frames the moment as an appeal made in the language of kinship.
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