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I present for your intellectual stimulation… Ruth. And it’s a good one. By skipping lessons 18-19, I hope our podcasts now match up with most lesson schedules.
See below for notes and references.
Lesson 20- Ruth
Bethlehem= beit + lechem “house of bread”
1:17- “Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do like this to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” See Jeff Lindsay’s blog post and the linked Biblica article there.
Mara= “bitter” (and isn’t related to Mary or Miriam)
Mid-April> Passover>Barley harvest>wheat harvest> shavu’ot or “Feast of weeks” or Pentecost
Leviticus 19:9-10 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God. ”
“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing. ”
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God.
Widows, orphans, outcasts, resident aliens, the poor and destitute, slaves, and Levites.
On the Levites, Deu 14:29- “At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.”
Boaz= gibbor chayil, may be strength/battle prowess, or wealth, but almost always indicates a good reputation and character.
Ruth = woman of chayil as well.
2:17 An ephah= 1 bath= 5.8 gallons, or nearly 30 lbs of grain.
Verb ga’al, noun go’el= “to redeem” or “redeemer” “kinsman-redeemer,” but not really.
Mid-April > Passover > Barley harvest > wheat harvest > shavu’ot or “Feast of weeks” or Pentecost
Redeeming- religious context, and coupons.
French acheter= “to buy”
rachester= re+acheter “to buy again, buy back, redeem”
Spanish redimir ?
Tribe > Clan >beit ab “father’s house”
Duty #1- avenge murdered family. Num 35:19-21 (go’el there is translated as “avenger”)
Duty #2- provide children for widow’s family, similar to Levirate marriage. Deu 25:5-10)
Duty #3- redeem family land- Lev 25:25-28
Duty #4- redeem family members from slavery. Lev 25:47-49.
“God is my father”- Abijah/Joab; Eliab
“God is my brother”- Ahiah/Joah
“God is my uncle”- Ammiel/Eliam
‘amm= “paternal uncle”> “kin”>”people”
Frank Moore Cross of Harvard
“Often it has been asserted that the language of ‘brotherhood’ and ‘fatherhood,’ ‘love,’ and ‘loyalty’ is ‘covenant terminology.’ This is to turn things upside down. The language of covenant, kinship-in-law, is taken from the language of kinship, kinship-in-flesh.”
“The ancient covenant originated as a legal means by which the duties and privileges of kinship may be extended to another individual or group. By establishing a covenant, an outsider was brought into a kinship relationship—a kind of familial conversion process, resulting in what Cross calls kinship-in-law, as opposed to kinship-in-flesh. Through its covenant with God, Israel becomes the “kindred of Yahweh.”
Summary of Cross’s article “Kinship and Covenant in Ancient Israel” From Epic to Canon by Hershel Shanks, in “God as Divine Kinsman- What Covenant Meant in Ancient Israel” Biblical Archaeology Review 25:04 (July/Aug 1999) [no preview available]
Kinship by adoption with kings-
See Psalm 2:7, 2Sa 7:14.
““And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.“
Life in abundance – John 10:10 Jesus says, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.”
Boaz= “in him is strength.”
Next week, lesson 21- 1 Samuel 1-3, 8.