festive occasions was a site for sexual licentiousness, and pagan influence led to such immorality in Israel too (Hos 9:1).44 The danger, then, is that Ruth and Boaz might fall into the sin of intercourse before marriage. This danger is suggested not only because the encounter would take place at “the threshing floor” (3:2–3, 6, 14) in secret at night, but also because other Hebrew vocabulary in 3:3–4 can, depending on the context, have sexual connotations (see the commentary below). The dramatic