READING RUTH · 3 OF 9
Return at harvest
Naomi and Ruth reach Bethlehem. Hear Naomi’s account of her losses, notice what the narrator adds, and learn why a harvest field can offer food to someone who does not own it.
In this lesson
The road reaches Bethlehem
In Where you go, Ruth committed herself to Naomi, Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God. Now these two women arrive from Moab at Bethlehem, Naomi’s former home in Judah. Both are widows, women whose husbands have died; Naomi has also lost her two sons. Ruth is her daughter-in-law, the widow of one of those sons.
Ruth belongs to the Writings, one division of Tanakh, our Hebrew Bible. In reading this narrative, distinguish the narrator, the voice telling the story, from the people whose speech it quotes. Hashem, “the Name,” is our customary way of referring to God.
19. The two of them went on until they reached Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”
אַל תִּקְרֶאנָה לִי נָעֳמִי
קְרֶאןָ לִי מָרָא20. She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me.
אֲנִי מְלֵאָה הָלַכְתִּי
וְרֵיקָם הֱשִׁיבַנִי יְהוָה21. I went away full, and Hashem has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when Hashem has testified against me and the Almighty has brought trouble upon me?”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
1. Who describes the arrival, who asks the question, and who says “empty”?
The narrator describes the two women’s arrival and the town’s reaction. The town’s women ask, “Is this Naomi?” Naomi answers them and describes herself as returning empty. Keep those voices attached to their words.
A name and a bitter answer
Naomi evokes pleasantness; Mara means bitter. Our biblical commentator Ibn Ezra, Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, on Ruth 1:20 explains the contrast between delight and bitterness. Naomi uses that contrast to tell the women what her life has become. Shaddai, rendered “the Almighty,” is a biblical name for God.
“Full” and “empty” compress a history of family loss. Naomi left with her husband and sons; she returns without them. Her speech includes a hard claim about Hashem’s dealings with her. Hearing it carefully means neither removing its pain nor turning it into our own explanation of why every bereaved person suffers.
2. Why would “Naomi returned with an empty stomach” be too small a reading of verse 21?
The contrast reaches back to the family with whom she left and the deaths already narrated. Food will matter greatly, but “full” and “empty” here express her changed life, not merely whether she has eaten a meal.
A worked reading: speech and frame
Consider this summary: “The narrator says that God punished Naomi, so her new permanent name is Mara.” Check it in two steps.
- Locate the voice. “Hashem has testified against me” and “Call me Mara” are inside Naomi’s speech. The narrator has given us her words, not replaced them with a separate explanation of the deaths.
- Check the next line. Does the narrator adopt the new name? Does the account stop with “empty”? Read verse 22 before deciding.
3. Repair the summary without softening Naomi’s words.
“Naomi asks the women to call her Mara because her life has become bitter. She describes Hashem as having brought her back empty and testified against her.” This preserves her serious words while identifying the speaker accurately. Whether the narrator now calls her Mara is a question for the next verse.
What a field owner must leave
To understand Ruth’s next step, turn to Torah, God’s teaching in the five books of Moses. Leviticus and Deuteronomy are two of those books. Their harvest commands give us a foundation for reading the field scene, not merely a general invitation to be generous.
לֹא תְכַלֶּה פְּאַת שָׂדְךָ לִקְצֹר
וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט19:9. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not finish reaping the edge of your field, and do not gather the gleanings of your harvest.
לֶעָנִי וְלַגֵּר תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָם
אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם19:10, closing words. Leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am Hashem your God.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
To reap is to cut the crop. Pe’ah, “edge,” is the portion left unharvested for the poor. Leket, “gleanings,” refers to fallen ears of grain left during harvesting. An ear is the grain-bearing head of a stalk, not a human ear. To glean is to gather such produce left in the field.
5. Is the standing crop at the field’s edge the same thing as grain dropped during reaping?
No. Pe’ah is left standing; leket falls in the course of harvesting. The verse names two distinct gifts. Both limit what the owner takes, but they arise in different ways.
A bundle left behind
A sheaf is a bundle of cut stalks. Deuteronomy adds a case involving a sheaf already gathered, not individual ears dropped while cutting.
וְשָׁכַחְתָּ עֹמֶר בַּשָּׂדֶה
לֹא תָשׁוּב לְקַחְתּוֹ24:19. When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, do not return to take it. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, so that Hashem your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20. When you beat your olive tree, do not go over its branches after you. What remains shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow.
21. When you harvest your vineyard, do not glean it after you. What remains shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow.
22. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Shikhechah, “forgetting,” names the forgotten produce. The fatherless are children whose fathers have died. The passage repeats its recipients across field, olive tree and vineyard, then connects the command with our people’s memory of slavery in Egypt.
6. What are the action, recipients and remembered reason in the forgotten-sheaf command?
The owner must not go back to retrieve the forgotten sheaf. It is for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. Verse 22 grounds the command in Israel’s memory of slavery in Egypt. The text gives an obligation and a reason, not permission to help only when the owner happens to feel moved.
Gifts that are not a personal favor
Our halakhah, Jewish law, develops these commands carefully. Rambam, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, explains in his code of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah, that the poor take these harvest gifts without the owner choosing who may receive them. They are not a reward the owner gives a favorite worker. See Gifts to the Poor 1:8.
The Hebrew rendered “stranger” is ger. In Gifts to the Poor 1:9, Rambam identifies the ger in these gifts as a ger tzedek, a person who has joined our people through conversion. He also teaches that non-Jewish poor are not prevented from gathering these gifts, because of darkhei shalom, the ways of peace. Keep these meanings clear rather than treating an English word as a complete legal definition.
7. Correct this claim: “Leaving gleanings is simply a field owner’s optional kindness.”
The Torah commands the owner to leave them, and Rambam explains that the owner does not control them as personal favors. A person can also show generosity beyond a particular harvest gift. Learning to distinguish those actions will help us read Boaz’s conduct accurately.
Return tomorrow
Without reopening the cards, distinguish Naomi’s speech from the narrator’s last line. Then recall one object and one action for each of pe’ah, leket and shikhechah.
9. Check your recall.
Naomi asks to be called Mara and describes returning empty. The narrator still calls her Naomi, names Ruth beside her and places their arrival at the start of barley harvest. Grief and a new opening are both in the text.
Pe’ah: leave standing crop at the edge. Leket: leave fallen gleanings from harvesting. Shikhechah: do not go back for the forgotten sheaf. The Torah’s commands establish responsibilities before any field owner’s added generosity.
Return to the sources
- Ruth 1:19–22: arrival, Naomi’s speech and harvest setting.
- Ibn Ezra on Ruth 1:20: the names’ contrast.
- Leviticus 19:9–10 and Deuteronomy 24:19–22: distinct harvest gifts.
- Rambam, Gifts to the Poor 1:8–9: the owner’s limits and the recipients.