Boaz was not asking whether Ruth could hear him. He was getting her attention for what he was about to say. Keil & Delitzsch explain the form as a question that gently affirms ("thou hearest, dost thou not?"). Gill agrees it was meant to stir her to listen and mentions another way to translate it: "hear, I pray thee, my daughter." Keil & Delitzsch hear fatherly kindness in "my daughter," and Gill notes that some take it to mean Boaz was older than Ruth. Gill also suggests Ruth might have thought of moving on so as not to seem troublesome, and Boaz wanted her to stay.

Ruth "fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground" and answered with a question of her own: "Why have I found grace in thine eyes?" (Ruth 2:10). That evening she told Naomi that Boaz had said, "Thou shalt keep fast by my young men" (Ruth 2:21), and Naomi called it good (Ruth 2:22). The chapter closes with Ruth doing what he asked: "she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz" to the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest (Ruth 2:23).

The way Boaz begins expects Ruth to say yes. The Hebrew opens with halo, the word for "not" with a question marker in front, meaning "Is it not?" "Abide here fast" translates dabaq, to cling or cleave. It is the same verb used when "Ruth clave unto" Naomi (Ruth 1:14), and it appears again in Ruth 2:21, 23.

Keil & Delitzsch suggest the maidens probably tied up the sheaves while the men cut the grain. Gill notes that Ruth had a legal right to glean, but because the owner could set when gleaning took place, in her modesty she would not begin without leave (Ruth 2:7).

Ruth had clung to Naomi when everything argued against it (Ruth 1:14). Now Boaz invites her to cling to his household, using the same Hebrew word, dabaq. Keil & Delitzsch suggest that, out of his affection as a relative toward Naomi, he had probably already intended to get to know her daughter-in-law. Through a kinsman's kindness, God was providing for two widows, one of whom had said the LORD brought her home "empty" (Ruth 1:21).

Boaz's words also turn Ruth from a stranger gleaning at the edges into someone with a settled place. Instead of moving from field to field with its risks (Ruth 2:22), she had protection, water, and a place among his workers until the harvest ended (Ruth 2:9, 23).