In the book of Ruth, the heroine's mother-in-law, Naomi, tells the
4. DETAILS: WARM HEARTS AND COLD FEET In the book of Ruth, the heroine's mother-in-law, Naomi, tells the widowed Ruth:
… My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do. (Ruth 3:1-4). This may sound like strange advice, and it is a part of the story that often troubles readers – especially because even some Bible commentaries have attempted to see sexual innuendos in what is said. But, as we will see, there is really nothing in the language used or in our knowledge of Hebrew culture of the time to suggest anything sexual was involved. Ruth's distant relative Boaz is shown to be an honorable man throughout the book, just as Ruth herself is shown to be honorable at every point. As we saw in Part One (and as Naomi doubtless explained to Ruth when she gave her the advice), according to the law of Moses when a man died leaving his wife without children, the man's nearest relative had the responsibility to take her as a wife and provide a child for her (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). This situation helps us understand what happened next.
The story continues by telling us that when Ruth went to the threshing floor where Boaz had been working and had gone to sleep:
… Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet! "Who are you?" he asked. "I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardianredeemer of our family." (Ruth 3:7-9). To understand this part of the story we need to realize that in the ancient Near East servants often slept crossways at the feet of their master when working outdoors and were allowed to pull any available blanket over themselves in order to keep warm. That is probably why Ruth told Boaz that she was his servant – and thus eligible to lie at his feet – and that he was her guardian-redeemer (Hebrew go'el) who bore a responsibility to marry her to provide a son to perpetuate the name of her family – so he should cover her with the edge of his "garment" both literally and also figuratively in the sense of marrying her (Ezekiel 16:8, etc.).
But why uncover his feet? Certainly, this caused him to eventually awaken in the dark, but Ruth could simply have woken Boaz to talk with him. The "uncovering" of Boaz's feet was necessary because in the culture of that time a shoe would be removed (and the foot thus "uncovered") to signal a responsibility or to seal a contract. We see this signaling in Deuteronomy in exactly this situation when a man would not fulfill his responsibility to his brother's wife: "his brother's widow shall go up to him …. take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, 'This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line'" (Deuteronomy 25:9).
We see the same act of uncovering the foot to seal an agreement later in the story of Ruth when Boaz shrewdly persuades Ruth's actual nearest of kin to forgo his responsibility and allow Boaz to
marry her: "(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)" (Ruth 4:7).
Interestingly, Boaz fulfilled two distinct responsibilities – by redeeming Naomi's property and also by providing an heir for the family. Perhaps that is why both his feet were uncovered as symbols of these responsibilities.
So Ruth's uncovering of Boaz's feet on the threshing floor most likely had nothing to do with the uncovering of any other part of the anatomy. Unlike Hebrew idioms such as "cover the feet" or "between the feet," the Hebrew expression used in Ruth – literally "uncover the place of his feet" – is never used euphemistically of other parts of the body. Rather, it clearly fits into what we see specifically in this part of the story – the signaling of a responsibility on the part of Boaz to act as a kinsman-redeemer to Naomi and Ruth. That was a responsibility this ancient story shows Boaz gladly fulfilled – without ever experiencing "cold feet" again!