What Does Ruth 3:9 Mean in the King James?
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 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
Ruth asks the family-reclaimer to spread his wing over her, joining shelter to kinship in a single image.
THE MEANING
The request names both the shelter sought and the bond that makes it answerable: Ruth calls the one she asks a kinsman who can reclaim family. The word for skirt also means wing, making the covering an image of protection joined to belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Protection is only a vague kindness, disconnected from relationship. Ruth ties the covering she asks for to the concrete claim of kinship.
THE ROOT
כָּנָף
kānāph
GROWS FROM
כנף
Wing; by extension, an edge or outer corner.
The word translated skirt is also the ordinary word for a wing. Ruth asks for the edge of a garment, but the Hebrew lets the image open into shelter under a wing, protection made close and personal.
ALSO GROWS
kānāph: A bird’s wing; also an edge or extremity.
כָּנָף
The wing sense reveals the sheltering image inside Ruth’s request.
kenaph beged: The edge or corner of a garment.
כְּנַף בֶּגֶד
This is the garment sense behind KJV’s skirt, held together in Hebrew with the image of a wing.
גֹּאֵל
go’el
GROWS FROM
גאל
To reclaim or redeem as a member of one’s kin.
The phrase translated near kinsman names more than proximity: go’el is the family-reclaimer. Ruth’s request rests on a relationship with the capacity to bring a relative back under care.
ALSO GROWS
gā’al: To reclaim or redeem.
גָּאַל
It makes Ruth’s appeal about restoring a family bond, not simply receiving a favor.
ge’ullah: The act or result of reclaiming what belongs within the family.
גְּאֻלָּה
This branch shows the restoring work carried by the role Ruth names.
THE PATTERN
A covering becomes shelter through a relationship that gathers and claims the one beneath it.
The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!THE THREAD
If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.The word translated kinsman in Ruth comes from גאל (gā’al), the same root rendered redeem here. Leviticus shows the family-reclaimer bringing back what has passed out of a relative’s possession.
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