Ruth 3:13 - Forerunner Commentary

Ruth 3:13

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Ruth 3:13-14
Excerpted from: Passover (Part 5)

Is he talking to somebody he did not know? He knew very well who it was! So how late in the night can this possibly be? It was pretty dark when this took place, but he knew who she was.

How early is boqer? By Hebrew usage, it is obvious from this account that boqer occurs before sunrise, but yet while it is still very dark—so that it is very difficult for one to recognize another, unless they are very close together.

Ruth took the barley and threw it over her shoulder. She left the threshing floor and it was light enough for her to go home by, but dark enough that, if anybody might have looked out the door of their house, they would not have been able to recognize who it was. Here we have a pretty precise definition of the usage of boqer. First of all, it is established that it is a fairly considerable time after midnight. However, it occurs before sunrise. Sunrise is when the sun appears over the horizon.

Boqer is in many ways similar to ben ha arbayim, only it is on the other end of the night period. Boqer begins at the first crack of dawn, when light begins to appear in the eastern sky. We will not go to Exodus 16, but (again by Hebrew usage at the time that this thing was occurring) that chapter makes it very clear that boqer continued through the morning until it was warm enough to be considered hot. That would be at least mid-morning and maybe late morning (by their own usage). That makes it very clear.

If sunrise is at, let us say, 6:00 a.m., then boqer probably begins at least at 5:00 a.m. (and maybe just a little bit earlier than that)—but certainly not 'midnight'. With boqer then, there is sufficient light to be able to distinguish one person from another at close range but not enough to be able to recognize somebody who might be 30-40 feet away, out on the path (or the street) going by a house. You could see the form. You could see the shape. But you could not really recognize who the person was.

The answer to element 6: Lailah means the dark of night. Boqer does not mean any part of night, nor shortly after midnight. It means the crack of dawn, first light (as night ends). So in summary we can say that the Hebrews did NOT use "morning" in the same way that we do. And to put an English usage onto this is NOT being honest with the Scriptures.

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