When Ruth meets Boaz, she is gleaning in his fields. The young man overseeing the harvest told Boaz that she is the daughter-in-law of Naomi and that she worked hard all day, “with scarcely a moment’s rest.” (Ruth 2: 7) Boaz certainly knows who Naomi is, since he is a relative of her late husband, Elimelech, so he now realizes who Ruth is, too.
But what does it mean to “glean after the harvesters?” From the context of the Book of Ruth, it sounds like gleaning is about picking up what the harvesters left behind. Actually, it is described in Leviticus:
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the Lord, am your God.” (Leviticus 19:9,10)
So this was part of Jewish law, that the poor, who usually included widows, would be welcomed to glean what the harvesters left behind. Boaz showed his generosity where that is concerned, instructing his servants to even drop a little more so Ruth can gather it.
Of course, I immediately go to my understanding of the word glean, as I knew it before I studied The Book of Ruth. This led me to contemplate what symbolism might be there. My first thought is to look for a dictionary definition of the word, so I Googled it:
glean: verb
extract (information) from various sources ‘the information is gleaned from press clippings”
synonyms: obtain, get, take, draw, derive, extract, cull, garner, gather
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collect gradually and bit by bit “objects gleaned from local markets”
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historical: gather (leftover grain or other produce) after a harvest “the conditions of farm workers in the 1890s made gleaning essential”
In the context of a book of Sacred Scripture, inspired by God, I always wonder what other messages might be there for us, besides the obvious story itself. I wonder if Ruth’s gleaning in the fields is setting a good example for us to be dedicated and work hard to glean every lesson we can find from the Bible. Surely God wants us to extract his messages from various books of the Bible, and to collect them gradually and bit by bit over years of reading and rereading His Word.
Lord God, we thank You for the gift of Your Word, provided for us beautifully in the Bible. Help us to glean Your important messages when we read Sacred Scripture.