And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth your handmaid: spread therefore your skirt over your handmaid; for you are a near kinsman.
Read Chapter 3
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Kinsman. Hebrew, "a redeemer "(Calmet) one bound to defend and to espouse a brother's widow, if others more nearly akin refuse. (Haydock)
Ruth modestly admonishes him of this duty, and begs that he would take her to wife, (Calmet) as he might then have done without any other formality. (Serar. q. vii.)
We find a similar expression Ezechiel xvi. 8., and Deuteronomy xxii. 80. Some think that she only asked for protection. The custom of the husband, stretching a part of his garment over his bride, was perhaps already established among the Hebrews. (Calmet)
Hebrew and Septuagint, "stretch thy wing over "Chaldean, "Let thy name be invoked upon thy handmaid, to take me to wife. "(Menochius; Isaias iv. 1.)
