What Does Ruth 3:17 Mean?
And she said, These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, Do not come empty to your mother-in-law.
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 she said, These six measures of barley gave he me; for he said to me, Go not empty unto thy mother in law.THE KEY
The word “empty” is answered not with reassurance but with barley Ruth can carry to Naomi.
THE MEANING
Six measures of barley make care tangible: provision moves through Ruth toward Naomi. A return that could hold only emptiness instead carries something they can touch and share. The verse holds open the possibility that one person’s giving reaches another through the bond between them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that returning from vulnerability must mean returning empty-handed.
THE ROOT
רֵיקָם
reikām
GROWS FROM
ריק
r-y-q
To be empty or to make empty.
“empty” in this verse is reikām. רֵיקָם describes more than an inward feeling of lack: it pictures coming or going with nothing in one’s hands. The barley answers that emptiness materially, carried through Ruth to Naomi.
ALSO GROWS
rîq: Emptiness, vanity, or what has no substance.
רִיק
This noun shows the root can name emptiness itself, the condition Ruth is told not to bring to Naomi.
hērîq: To empty out or pour out.
הֵרִיק
This form makes emptiness something that can be brought about; here, what might have remained empty is met with a gift.
THE PATTERN
Scripture marks a just passage onward by whether the one who leaves is sent empty-handed or carrying provision.
And I will give this people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and when you go, you shall not go empty.And when you send him out unbound from you, you shall not send him away empty.He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.THE THREAD
And I will give this people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and when you go, you shall not go empty.The same Hebrew word, רֵיקָם (reikām, empty-handed), marks Israel’s departure from Egypt and Ruth’s return to Naomi. The shared word links both passages through a journey answered with provision in hand.
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