David's Midnight Thanks for Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz at the Threshing Floor

(Exodus 12:29:) "And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD smote all the firstborn." This is what Scripture says (in Psalm 119:62): "At midnight I will arise to give thanks to You." David said: I am obligated to arise and give thanks to You for what You did with my grandfather and with my grandmother at midnight. When? At the time when Naomi and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, returned. What is written? "And the whole city was stirred over them, and they said: Is this Naomi?" (Ruth 1:19). This is the one who used to walk in a covered carriage. This Naomi is the one who used to walk about clothed in fine wool, "those who were raised in scarlet" (Lamentations 4:5). The two of them dwelt together in one house. "And Naomi said to her: My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you?" (Ruth 3:1). From here they said that a woman has no rest in her father's house, but only in her husband's house. "And now, is not Boaz our kinsman" (Ruth 3:2). What is "our kinsman" (moda'tanu)? He is of our near relations, as it is said: "The man is near of kin to us" (Ruth 2:21). And why did the prince of the generation go out and sleep in the threshing floor? Rather, because the generation was very licentious, he went out and slept in the threshing floor in order to fence in the licentious. Now, "you shall wash and anoint yourself" (Ruth 3:3) — she did not do so. Rather, Ruth was very modest. She said: Whoever would see me thus would say, "What has this harlot done?" "And she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law commanded her" (Ruth 3:6). Only after she went down did she do all that her mother-in-law had commanded her.