מדרש על במדבר 32:42
Ruth Rabbah
“She said: Let me find favor in your eyes, my master; for you have comforted me, and you have spoken to the heart of your maidservant, though I will not be like one of your maidservants” (Ruth 2:13).
“She said: Let me find favor in your eyes, my master…though I will not be like one of your maidservants.” He said to her: ‘God forbid,183This reading is derived from the fact that the next verse begins: “Boaz said to her.” In all but three places in the Bible “to her” is written as “lah” with a diacritic dot in the heh. This is one of the places where there is no dot in the heh and it is therefore interpreted as though it means “no” [lo] (Etz Yosef). The midrash continues by mentioning the similar interpretations of the other two instances where this occurs. you are not like one of the maidservants, but rather one of the mothers.’ Similarly, “Novaḥ went and captured Kenat and its environs, [and called it [la] Novaḥ, after his own name]” (Numbers 32:42) – this teaches that this name did not hold. Similarly, “He said to me: To build her [la] a house in the land of Shinar” (Zechariah 5:11)184The Sages explain that no house will be built for the “two women” (Zechariah 5:9), who represent flattery and arrogance. – this teaches that falsehood has no existence.
“She said: Let me find favor in your eyes, my master…though I will not be like one of your maidservants.” He said to her: ‘God forbid,183This reading is derived from the fact that the next verse begins: “Boaz said to her.” In all but three places in the Bible “to her” is written as “lah” with a diacritic dot in the heh. This is one of the places where there is no dot in the heh and it is therefore interpreted as though it means “no” [lo] (Etz Yosef). The midrash continues by mentioning the similar interpretations of the other two instances where this occurs. you are not like one of the maidservants, but rather one of the mothers.’ Similarly, “Novaḥ went and captured Kenat and its environs, [and called it [la] Novaḥ, after his own name]” (Numbers 32:42) – this teaches that this name did not hold. Similarly, “He said to me: To build her [la] a house in the land of Shinar” (Zechariah 5:11)184The Sages explain that no house will be built for the “two women” (Zechariah 5:9), who represent flattery and arrogance. – this teaches that falsehood has no existence.
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