What Does Ruth 3:18 Mean?
Then she said, Sit, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall, for the man will not settle until he has finished the matter this day.
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
Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.THE KEY
The English gives you “matter” and “thing,” but Hebrew repeats one דָּבָר (davar, word/matter): the same matter is both what unfolds and what Boaz finishes.
THE MEANING
A matter can remain unresolved without being neglected. Stillness and decisive action can coexist while someone carries it toward completion. The assurance here is specific: Boaz will not rest until the matter is finished today.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that waiting means a matter has been abandoned; the verse places stillness beside someone’s determined action.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; the same word can mean a spoken word, a matter, or a thing.
The KJV uses “matter” and “thing” for the same Hebrew דָּבָר (davar, word/matter). That shared word links what is still unfolding with what Boaz completes: it is one matter, carried through to its end.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke; to speak
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root shows the speech inside דָּבָר (davar, word/matter), joining what is said to the matter that takes shape.
devarim: Words, sayings, or matters
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the root’s range visible: what is spoken can also be the matter under consideration.
יִשְׁקֹט
yishqot
GROWS FROM
שקט
sh-q-t
To be quiet, undisturbed, or at rest.
The root שָׁקַט (shaqat, be quiet or undisturbed) can describe a land settling into rest after conflict. Here, rest follows the completion of the matter: Ruth remains seated while Boaz’s determined action continues.
ALSO GROWS
vatishqot: And it rested / was quiet
וַתִּשְׁקֹט
Judges 3:11 uses this form for the land coming to rest, showing quiet as the state that follows a change in circumstances.
hashqet: Quietness
הַשְׁקֵט
Isaiah 30:15 pairs quietness with confidence, giving the root a sense of settled calm rather than mere inactivity.
THE PATTERN
Rest comes when the work has been carried through to its completion.
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.For the one who has entered into his settling has himself also settled from his own works, as God did from his.Being confident of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Ruth names the unfinished matter with דָּבָר (davar, word/matter), and Isaiah uses the same root for the word that goes forth and accomplishes its purpose. The shared root holds together a spoken word and the matter that comes to completion.
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