What Does Ruth 2:14 Mean?
And Boaz said to her, At mealtime draw near here, and eat of the bread, and immerse your morsel in the vinegar. And she sat facing the reapers, and he held out to her parched grain, and she ate and was full, and left some over.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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 full” 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.
“left some over” in this verse is vattōtar. 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 executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living soul with goodness.And they ate, and were all filled. And twelve baskets of the broken pieces that remained were lifted up.THE THREAD
For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living 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.
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