UNDER WHOSE WINGS
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
These lines from Robert Frost's famous poem Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening have helped many readers stop and ponder over the years. The repetition gives a singing nature to the poem's end, and it suggests two potential meanings. Miles to go while traveling in a horse-drawn carriage. But also miles to go in the journey of life before dying.
It would be an entirely different poem if we paraphrased it thus: I have a long way to go before stopping for the night, and before I die. While the paraphrase might make the idea of life as a journey toward death more obvious, it takes something away from the poetic image.
The same thing can happen in Bible translation when translators make choices about words with more than one meaning. Translators can smooth things out and make an idea clearer, but it can cost us the beauty of an image. It doesn't mean that translators are doing a bad job. It shows us why having more than one translation in our heart language can be helpful. I think it is also an encouragement for those who can to learn to read the original languages of the Bible.
There is a beautiful moment in the story of Ruth where the relationship between this young woman and the older man, Boaz, comes to a climax. Naomi explains to Ruth how she can position herself to have Boaz propose marriage. Go to the party. Sleep at his feet once it is dark. When he wakes up in the middle of the night, say to him, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” (Ruth 3:9)
Now it's true that the Hebrew word kanaph can mean both "wing" and "corner of a garment," so there is no problem with what some translators do. Most Bibles have a footnote here. However, one modern translation renders it as: Marry your servant, for you are a guardian of the family interests. It clarifies a phrase that modern people don't use ("spread your wings over your servant"), but it costs the beauty of an image the Bible uses in many places.
The Psalms speak of God covering a person with his wings. It's an image of peace and protection. It's an image of God's gentleness and strength being activated toward his people. On the one hand, it is God covering the whole nation of his people. On the other, it is an individual psalmist crying out for personal protection.
Psalms 17:8
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,
Psalms 61:4
Let me dwell in your tent forever!
Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah
Psalms 91:4
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
Perhaps the most famous wing-covering imagery of the Bible appears right at the beginning. In Genesis 1:2 we are told "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Elsewhere, that same word is translated as "flutters," and the context bears it out.
Deuteronomy 32:11-12
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
the LORD alone guided him,
no foreign god was with him.
God's wing covers the individual who calls on him because his wing has covered the world since the creation. He is big, and he is close.
Ruth's suitor, Boaz, shows that he knows this imagery in one of his first personal interactions with Ruth. In Ruth 2:12, he commends Ruth by saying, "The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”
With that image, Boaz reminds Ruth that God is big enough to care for all her problems and concerns (e.g., being impoverished, living in a land foreign to her, and her role as the surviving caretaker of Naomi). He is also close enough to care for her personally, to see her individually as someone who has chosen a hard road, but a worthy one.
The poetic and romantic beauty of the relationship of Ruth and Boaz comes out in the next chapter in that verse we mentioned earlier (Ruth 3:9) - Spread your wings over your servant!
In other words, Ruth now reminds Boaz that God is big enough to care for all his problems and concerns, and God is kind enough to provide a wife for him in Ruth. Boaz has the opportunity to be the answer to his own blessing. As God has covered Boaz with his wing and provided wealth and stability in uncertain times, so now Boaz can cover Ruth with his wing in marital love and family provision.
This is a beautiful love story that is made more beautiful through the image surrounding wings.
You can go deeper if you learn about the concept of a redeemer in the time of Ruth and Boaz. The redeemer has the right to buy back the family farm, the right to move Ruth from poverty to cherished bride. The redeemer begins pointing forward to a grandson-king, David, who will usher in a golden era for God's people. Beyond that, another grandson, a greater grandson in the line of Ruth and Boaz - the Lord Jesus Christ - will be the redeemer of all God's people. He will move his church from the poverty of sin to the cherished bride dressed in white. Look for that word and concept across the Bible next.
When we sit with Scripture over and over again, when we take time to let its words and phrases make us curious, then we can know more richly the God who reveals himself to us in his word.
May you find refuge under his wings.