Ruth had risked danger by sleeping on the threshing floor (v. 14). Other people might have seen her and assumed that something bad was taking place. Evidently some of Boaz's reapers were aware of her presence, but Boaz told them to keep Ruth's presence there a secret (v. 14).
"He knew that if it became known, town gossips would put the worst construction on the incident, just as some modern commentators do, thereby destroying Ruth's reputation and perhaps his own."61
Boaz had previously given Ruth an ephah of barley to carry back to Naomi in addition to her gleanings (2:7). Now he gave her six measures of barley (v. 18). The Hebrew text reads "six of barley"the word "measures"having been supplied by the translators. What measure the writer meant is therefore unclear. If it was the ephah, Ruth would have had to carry three and three-fifths bushels (over 200 pounds) in the cloak (shawl, NIV). This seems unlikely. Probably the measure was a seah (one-third of an ephah) in which case Ruth carried about one and one-fifth bushels, 60 to 95 pounds of grain. It seems that Boaz was even more generous on this occasion than he had been previously. As before, Boaz's gift of barley was a token of God's blessing on Ruth and on Naomi through Ruth.
"The seed to fill the stomach was promise of the seed to fill the womb."62
The theme of rest concludes this chapter (v. 18) as it began it (v. 1). Boaz would not rest until he had provided rest for Ruth, the rest Naomi had sought for her. Until then, Ruth could only wait. Her waiting was a demonstration of her faith and a foretaste of the rest she would enter into shortly.
Likewise Christians wait now until our Redeemer brings our redemption to completion at which time we will rest finally and fully in His presence. Many writers have noted the parallels between Ruth and the church, the bride of Christ, and Boaz and Christ.63
Chapter 3 is all about how Ruth might find rest. The solution to her need was marriage to Boaz that we see planned in this chapter but realized in the next.
". . . taken as a whole, the chapter taught that God carries out his work through believers who seize unexpected opportunities as gifts from God."64
