Once again, the story-teller signals us: the verb he uses is not “lie down,” that ambiguous term, but Hebrew lwn/lyn, “to lodge,” the same term Ruth had used in her avowal to Naomi in 1:16. No ambivalence here! This term is never used in the Hebrew Bible with any sexual undertone. The dark ambiguity gives way to the clarity of the kinds of human commitments which characterize this story. Now it becomes clear that both of these people are worthy, and will do things in righteous fashion. It is not