Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.anglia.ac.uk>]

Maybe Ruth 3:4 should be taken into consideration in the 
discussion. Any theories that Ruth's lying down and 
uncovering Boaz'z feet/legs means that Ruth had sex with 
Boaz while he was too out of it to realise what was 
happening should also posit that Naomi directly 
instructed Ruth to do so.

While I agree that in some places the tendency is to 
introduce censorship in translation I have to say that 
contextually this understanding doesn't seem to make 
sense. The whole point of uncovering Boaz legs/feet 
is so that as a result of the cold he would wake up 
and find a beautiful woman lying at his feet.

Boaz expresses appreciation for her humble answer not 
for the night's activities. If the plan was to win 
Boaz over by giving him a good time then surely the 
plan would have worked better if he could remember what 
a good time he had. As it stands, though, it would seem 
that this text means exactly what it says. Ruth went in 
when he was asleep, gently uncovered his feet/legs, lay 
down and waited. When the sensation of cold provoked 
had got strong enough Boaz woke up and found a 
beautiful and humble girl at his feet. Contrast this 
with the theoretical Ruth walks in, shakes Boaz and 
says 'Wake up you old goat! Are you gonna marry me or 
what?'.

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James Christian Read - BSc Computer Science 
http://www.lamie.org/hebrew       -  thesis1: concept driven machine 
translation using the Aleppo codex 
http://www.lamie.org/lad-sim.doc  -  thesis2: language acquisition simulation
http://www.lamie.org/ngelta

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Computer Science 
http://www.lamie.org/hebrew       -  thesis1: concept driven machine 
translation using the Aleppo codex
http://www.lamie.org/lad-sim.doc  -  thesis2: language acquisition simulation
http://www.lamie.org/ngelta

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