"Gleaning Among the Ears"--"Gathering Among the Sheaves": Characterizing the Image of the Supervising Boy (Ruth 2)‪.‬

One of the difficult verses in Ruth, regarding which much ink has been spilt, is the verse that records the words of the supervising boy to Boaz about Ruth: (1) "and she said: Let me glean, I pray you, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves; so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, save that she tarried a little in the house" (2:7). (2) I want to focus on the first part of the verse, where the boy quotes Ruth as asking to reap "among the sheaves." The difficulty in interpreting this clause relates to two different realms: linguistics and content. Linguistically, the meaning of the prepositional letter [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] within the context of this verse ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) is unclear. Most translations and commentators understand the letter to mean "between," "among the sheaves." (3) Syntactically, this reading is plausible and consistent with the frequent usage of the preposition [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in this sense in the Scriptures. (4) In light of this linguistic explanation, however, the second problem, involving content, becomes more acute. If Ruth indeed asks the boy to gather also among the sheaves, then her request is most peculiar.