Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

GA: A question I have of the narrative is why could not Ruth simply confront
Boaz at some other time, such as when he was awake and with his wits about
him? If there was no 'hanky panky' (either actual or implied), why the need
for secrecy? What did it add? Why the need to wait for Boaz to be asleep
after his eating and drinking? Also, Ruth was all dolled up.

JCR: Another pertinent question is this - which is more 
likely to have woken Boaz up? Ruth having her wicked 
way with him while he slept or the cold sensation of 
his feet/legs being uncovered?

The fact that Boaz woke up as a result of the cold in 
his feet/legs seems to indicate to me that Ruth did no 
more than what the text says, uncover his feet and lie
down. This is the plan that Naomi gave to Ruth.
Nowhere does Naomi say 'Be careful not to wake the old 
codger up while your doing the business.' The plan 
seems clear to me that Boaz had to wake up and find a 
beautiful girl at his feet and the choice of whether to 
take her or not was left up to him. Boaz evidently 
wanted to take her as his but in respect of the law 
decided to curb his desires and do what was right 
before reaping the rewards.

GA: Perhaps Ruth only wanted
to make Boaz think that he had slept with her.

JCR: This would make more sense than suggesting Ruth 
actually made love with Boaz while he slept because as 
I said above the act of love making would have woken 
Boaz up quicker than the cold in his feet/legs.

However, I'm still not 100% convinced.

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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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James Christian Read - BSc Computer Science
http://www.lamie.org/hebrew       -  thesis1: concept driven machine 
translation using the Aleppo codex
http://www.