among the landless, no one was supposed to remain hungry or unclothed, neither the widow not the orphan nor “the stranger among you.” Naomi and Ruth belonged to that class when they came to Bethlehem. But the sheaves of wheat they collected on the margins of Boaz’s field were not charity, not a favor, not out of the goodness of Boaz’s heart. Ancient Israel, you see, was a culture of law-based justice, not kind-hearted philanthropy. That wheat was no longer Boaz’s property. It was the rich man’s legal levy, and the poor women’s rightful desert.
