Ruth 2:16

Rth 2:16 And let fall also [some] of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave [them], that she may glean [them], and rebuke her not.

Ver. 16. And let fall also some of the handfuls.] Boaz could have given her at first an ephah of barley, and it had been no more charge to him. But he will have her use her endeavours to gather, and glean, and beat out. And that labour of hers should be the price she should pay for it. So God gives knowledge and grace. The heathen could say, Dii laboribus omnia vendunt.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rth 2:16. Let fall also some of the handfuls — What an amiable picture of piety and virtue in private life have we here in Boaz! In the midst of riches he is laborious, diligent in husbandry, plain without luxury, delicacy, sloth, or pride. How affable, obliging, and kind to his servants! The Lord be with you, says he, even to his reapers. What an obliging humanity, as well as generosity, does he show when he desires Ruth not to go into any other field to glean, but to abide fast by his maidens, to eat and drink with them; and in the order he gives his reapers to let her glean even among the sheaves, and to let fall some of the handfuls on purpose for her, that she might gather them without being ashamed! What a noble pattern have we here to instruct us in what manner to bestow benefits, namely, so as to spare those whom we oblige the confusion of receiving, and ourselves the temptation of vain glory in giving.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her--The gleaners in the East glean with much success; for a great quantity of corn is scattered in the reaping, as well as in their manner of carrying it. One may judge, then, of the large quantity which Ruth would gather in consequence of the liberal orders given to the servants. These extraordinary marks of favor were not only given from a kindly disposition, but from regard to her good character and devoted attachment to her venerable relative.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

16. the bundles] Only here; in Assyr. the root (ṣabâtu) means ‘to grasp’; in the Mishnah and Jewish Aram., ‘to bind.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And let fall some of the handfuls on purpose for her,.... That is, when they had reaped an handful, instead of laying it in its proper order, to be taken up by those that gathered after them, or by themselves, in order to be bound up in sheaves, scatter it about, or let it fall where they reaped it:

and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not for taking them, as if she did a wrong thing.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

16. Handfuls of purpose for her — “These directions of Boaz went far beyond the bounds of generosity and compassion for the poor, and show that he felt a peculiar interest in Ruth, with whose circumstances he was well acquainted, and who had won his heart by her humility, her faithful attachment to her mother in law, and her love to the God of Israel — a fact important to notice in connection with the further course of the history.” — Keil.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And even of set purpose draw out for her from the bundles, and leave them, and let her glean them, and do not find fault with her. His kindness grows as he sees her, or speaks concerning her. He gives additional injunctions in her favor, both to the young men and to the maidens, though the line of distinction between the two sexes dips at times entirely out of sight. When the sheaf-makers had gathered an armful of stalks, and there seemed to be so clean a sweep that none were left behind, then they were of set purpose (de industria) to draw out some from the bunches or bundles, and leave them lying. The act of deliberate, as opposed to unintentional, drawing, is expressed by the emphatic repetition of the verb WlvoTAlvo. The verb thus repeated was a puzzle to the older expositors, inclusive of all the Hebrew commentators. But comparative philology has clearly determined its radical import, and thus illuminated its use in the passage before us. It does not here mean "spoil," though that is its usual signification. Nor can it mean "let fall," as in King James"s version. It means draw out. Do not find fault with her. The word is almost always rendered rebuke in our English version; but the force of the preposition may be represented thus: "do not chide "with" her." "It was," says Dr. Andrew Thomson, "a thoughtful and delicate form of kindness to Ruth, thus to increase her gleanings, and yet to make them all appear the fruit of her own industry.... There are persons to be met with in social life who, while possessing the more solid qualities of moral excellence, are singularly deficient in the more graceful. They have honesty, but they have no sensibility; they have truth, but they are strangely wanting in tenderness. They are distinguished by whatsoever things are just and pure, but not by those which are lovely and of good report. You have the marble column, but you have not the polish or the delicate tracery on its surface; you have the rugged oak, but you miss the jasmine or the honeysuckle creeping gracefully around it from its roots. But the conduct of Boaz, as we stand and hear him giving these directions to his reapers, proves the compatibility of those two forms of excellence, and how the strong and the amiable may meet and harmonies in the same character. Indeed, they do always meet in the highest forms of moral greatness" ("Studies on the Book of Ruth," pp. 119, 120).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And also, pretend to forget Heb. שֹּׁל תָּשּׂלוּ, you shall forget, pretend that you are forgetting. The Targum for שְּׁגָגָה, inadvertence, is שָּׁלוּתָא, and similarly, (II Sam. 6:7): “for the error, (הַשַּׁל).” Another explanation: an expression of (Deut. 28:40): “your olive tree will cast off (יִשַּׁל) [its fruit].”

bundles Heb. צְבָתִים small sheaves, and there is a similar expression in the language of the Mishnah (Er. 10: 1): “If he found them (tefillin) in pairs (צְבָתִים) or in bundles.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.