The Book of Ruth

Sexual Health Positive Vocabulary

Uncover the Feet (Ruth3:4)

Spread the Corner of Garment, Lie at Feet (Ruth 3:9,14)

Genital Sexual Intercourse, BO (Ruth 4:13)

Uncover the Feet

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 3:4)

When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. (Ruth 3:7)

Spread Corner of Garment, Lie at 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 guardian-redeemer of our family.” (Ruth 3:9)

So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.” (Ruth 3:14)

Genital Sexual Intercourse, BO

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her (BO), the LORD enabled her to conceive, and shegave birth to a son. (Ruth 4:13)

Gynecological and Anatomical Terms

Conceive, hey-REEN

Give Birth, YEH-led

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive (hey-REEN), and she gave birth (YEH-led) to a son. (Ruth 4:13)

The Book of Ruth may be another sexual health teaching piece for childen. In this short story children might learn about physical intimacy, family responsibility, betrothal, and the covenant of marriage without direct conversation about sexual intercourse or body parts. One principle clinicians use with children is to only disclose information for which the child has had experience. For example, a child without sexual hormones will not understand the sensation of sexual attraction until puberty. But that same child can understand body parts and boundaries. The gentle sexual health terms for intimacy in Ruth are: uncover the feet, spread the corner of the garment, and lie at the feet.  The Hebrew term for  feet, REH-gehl, has a range of meaning: literal feet, genitalia male or female, elimination of urine or feces, and possibly genital sexual intercourse. (Strong, 7272)

Feet, REH-ghel, first appears in Genesis. Abraham offers God’s messengers a hygienic foot washing with place to rest.

Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet (REH-gehl) and rest under this tree. (Genesis 18:4)

Feet can also mean male or female genitalia. Deuteronomy 28:57 predicts future judgements against Israel. When speaking of victims of siege and starvation, the prophecy states that mothers will consume their own children’s afterbirth to survive. The word feet is used for vulva and birth canal.

…the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears  (the afterbirth which comes out from her feet, REH-gehl). For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities. (Deuteronomy 28:57)

Isaiah uses feet in a modest way to describe the shaving of male pubic hair.

In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your heads and private parts (REH,gehl\feet), and to cut off your beards also. (Isaiah 7:20)

Feet also appears as a euphemism for elimination of urine or feces. Ehud the judge executes Eglon King of Moab. Lying dead within the royal quarters,  Eglon’s servants surmise the locked doors are because the king relieves himself. Literally in the Hebrew the phrase is, “covering his feet ”.  This same expression appears in the King Saul snapshot. Saul takes a restroom break in a cave while pursuing David. Saul “covers his feet” or eliminates.

After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself (cover his feet) in the inner room of the palace.” (Judges 3:24)

He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself (cover his feet). David and his men were far back in the cave. (1 Samuel 24:3)

When Ezekiel describes victims of sex trafficking having intercourse with strangers, the prophet uses the term feet instead of legs. This seems to connect the imagery of genitalia to feet.

At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs (feet) with increasing promiscuity (zah-NAH) to anyone who passed by. (Ezekiel 16:25)

After King David impregnated Bathsheba, he attempted to cover up his affair. He recalled Uriah from the front line of war to have intercourse with Bathsheba, Uriah’s legal wife. In David’s mind the pregnancy could then be attributed to Uriah instead of the king’s illicit trist with the married Bathsheba.  The plan does not go well for the king. Although the phrase, “wash the feet” is used for Uriah’s visit to his wife, Uriah clarifies,“wash the feet”, means genital sexual intercourse in 2 Samuel 11:11.

Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet (REH-gehl).” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. (2 Samuel 11:8)

Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love (shah-KAWV) to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” (2 Samuel 11:11)

The Book of Ruth does not explicitly detail Boaz and Ruth’s sexual intimacy. One of the translation principles used in this work is, “If the author intends clarity, then the text is explicit and precise. If a text seems vague, then obscurity may be intention .” Ruth could be the case of intentional lack of detail for the sake of teaching small children about sexual health in marriage.  Naomi coaches Ruth guiding her to the intimacy of beauty. Beauty is one of seven intimacies presented in Genesis 1-4. Naomi states, 

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. (Ruth 3:3)

Naomi then advises Ruth to “uncover the feet” of Boaz.  The phrase “uncover the feet” can connect to genitalia with or without sexual intimacy or it may be simply saying she lay at his literal feet. The text appears ambiguous. Could this be for storytelling to children? Naomi’s plan puts Ruth in proximity with Boaz so he might enact the yah-BEEM (guardian redeemer) marriage law. The yah-BEEM, sexual health code in the ancient Near East, permitted family members to marry a widow related by marriage. The yah-BEEM not only ensured offspring, but created inheritance rights with tribal protection for women and their children. This might be thought of as ancient life insurance. Then Ruth makes the pitch for a marriage proposal when she asks Boaz to, “spread the corner of your garment over me.”

“Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer (yah-BEEM) of our family.”

“The LORD bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.

And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. (Ruth 3:3-11)

“Spread the corner of  your garment over” is used one other time in the Old Testament for making a covenant of marriage.

Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body (covered your nakedness). I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine. (Ezekiel 16:8)

Covering nakedness is the opposite of uncovering nakedness. Leviticus lists numerous incest prohibitions using the term” uncover the nakedness of”.

Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations  with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. (Leviticus 18:7)

The literal Hebrew is, “The nakedness of your father, that is the nakedness of your mother do not uncover she is your mother.” After Ham uncovers the nakedness of  (commits incest with) his mother in Genesis 9, the brothers, Shem and Japheth, “cover the nakedness” of their mother.

But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body (cover the nakedness of). Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. (Genesis 9:23)

Uncovering the nakedness can mean the sexual violence of incest. Covering the nakedness without the preposition “un” appears to be an act of recovery not violation. The Ezekiel 16:8 passage seems to redeem the people of Israel for relationship with God using the familiar sexual health term, covenant. Ezekiel 16:8 does not appear to be a sexual intercourse snap shot.

Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body (covered your nakedness). I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine. (Ezekiel 16:8)

The Book of Esther

Sexual Health Positive Term

Eunuch/Intersexual

Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch (sah-REECE), who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. (Esther 2:3)

In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch (sah-REECE)who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name. (Esther 2:14)

Eunuch/Intersexual, sah-REECE

Eunuch, meaning court official unable to have heterosexual genital intercourse, is the Hebrew word sah-REECE appearing 42 times in the Hebrew Old Testament (Strong, H5631). The New Testament Greek term is eunuch, pronounced you-NEW-kos, which occurs eight times (Strong, G2135).

In the Old Testament,sah-REECE is used to describe Potiphar, the cup bearer and chief baker for Pharaoh, the eunuchs caring for the harem including Esther, and Isaiah’s encouraging prophecy of hope. In the New Testament Jesus affirms eunuchs in the church. Phillip baptizes the eunuch in charge of Queen Candace’s chief of operations in Acts 8. The term eunuch is specific to a class of court officials who guarded the harem of the king. The eunuch, sah-REECE, was either born without the ability for genital sexual intercourse, or he was surgically castrated to prevent impregnating the wives of kings. The eunuch born with the ability for intercourse and conception most likely has intersexual traits. Approximately 2% of the population is born not XX or XY chromosomes. Some intersexual variants make intercourse and conception impossible.