RUTH. 
263 
Naomi bids her follow the reapers of Boaz according to his Avish ; 
and she did so “ through the barley-harvest, and through the 
Avheat-harvest, and she d^velt with her mother-in-law.” It was 
at the close of the harvest that Ruth, following Naomi’s direc- 
tions, laid herself dorvn at night, at the feet of Boaz, as he slept 
on the threshing-floor ; an act by which she reminded him of the 
law that the nearest of kin should marry the childless Avidow, 
This act has been very severely commented on. Upon this 
ground only, M. de Voltaire has not scrupled to apply to Ruth 
one of the most justly opprobrious Avords in human language ; 
and several noted skeptics of the English school have given this 
as one among their objections against the Holy Scriptures.* As 
though m a state of society Avholly simple and primitive, we Avere 
to judge of Ruth by the rules of propriety prevailing in the 
courts of Charles II. .and Louis XV. Ruth and Boaz lived, in- 
deed, among a race, and in an age, when not only the daily 
speech, but the daily life .also, was highly figurative ; Avhen it was 
the great object of language and of action to give force and ex- 
pression to the intention of the mind, instead of applying, as in a 
later, and a degenerate society, all the powers of speech and 
action to concealing the real object in vieAv. The simplicity with 
Avhich this peculiarly JeAvish part of the narratiA^e is given, will 
rather appear to the impartial judge a merit. But the Christian 
has double grounds for receiving this fact in the same spirit as it 
is recorded, and upon those grounds we may feel confident that, 
had Ruth been a guilty woman, or had Boaz acted otherwise than 
uprightly toAvard the young widow, neither Avould have been 
spared the open shame of such misconduct. The Book of Ruth 
* See Letters of the Jews to Voltaire. 
