Threshing Floor on the Ridge

The flat, wind-exposed limestone platform on a ridge outside an Israelite village where the harvested grain was beaten from the straw and tossed into the evening breeze to separate kernel from chaff. In Ruth 3 Naomi sends Ruth at night to Boaz's threshing floor where the workers have lain down to sleep beside the heaped winnowed barley, and the conversation at his feet sets in motion their marriage and the redemption of the family line.