BOOK OF RUTH
The Book of Ruth is an interlude between the Judges and the Kings.
The Book of Ruth is a beautiful story about Ruth, the Moabite woman who accepts the God of the Israelites as her God and accepts the Israelite people as her own.
The events in it happened over 3,000 years ago. Because it is about ordinary people, this story can help us today. This story is about an ordinary family whose members suffered many losses, but God went on looking after them. Then He gave them new gifts to make them glad.
AUTHOR
We do not know who wrote Ruth. Perhaps it was a familiar story that a scribe wrote down after King David’s death. In chapter 4 verses 18-22, there is a list of people who were born into Ruth’s family. This includes King David. He was a very great king, an ancestor of Jesus.
It is one of the historical books and is placed between Judges and 1 Samuel.
STRUCTURE
The book is structured into four chapters.
Act 1: Prologue and Problem: Death and Emptiness (1:1–22)
Scene 1: Setting the scene (1:1–5)
Scene 2: Naomi returns home (1:6–18)
Scene 3: Arrival of Naomi and Ruth in Bethlehem (1:19–22)
Act 2: Ruth Meets Boaz, Naomi's Relative, on the Harvest Field (2:1–23)
Scene 1: Ruth in the field of Boaz (2:1–17)
Scene 2: Ruth reports to Naomi (2:18–23)
Act 3: Naomi Sends Ruth to Boaz on the Threshing Floor (3:1–18)
Scene 1: Naomi Reveals Her Plan (3:1–5)
Scene 2: Ruth at the threshing floor of Boaz (3:6–15)
Scene 3: Ruth reports to Naomi (3:16–18)
Act 4: Resolution and Epilogue: Life and Fullness (4:1–22)
Scene 1: Boaz with the men at the gate (4:1–12)
Scene 2: A son is born to Ruth (4:13–17)
Genealogical appendix (4:18–22)
SUMMARY
During the time of the judges, an Israelite family from Bethlehem (who are Ephrathites) — Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Chilion —emigrated to the nearby country of Moab. Elimelech dies, and the sons marry two Moabite women: Mahlon weds Ruth and Chilion, Orpah.
After about ten years, the two sons of Naomi also die in Moab (1:4). Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem. She tells her daughters-in-law to return to their own mothers and remarry. Orpah reluctantly leaves. However, Ruth demurs: "Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the Lord do to me if anything but death parts me from you." (Ruth 1:16–17 NJPS).
Naomi entreats Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab. Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Ruth supports her mother-in-law and herself, She goes to the fields to glean. As it happens, the field belongs to a man named Boaz, who is kind to her because he has heard of her loyalty to her mother-in-law. Ruth tells Naomi of Boaz's kindness, and Ruth continues to glean in his field through the remainder of barley and wheat harvests.
Boaz, being a close relative of Naomi's husband's family, is therefore obliged by the levirate law to marry Ruth, Mahlon's widow, to carry on his family's inheritance. Naomi sends Ruth to the threshing floor at night where Boaz sleeps, directing Ruth to "uncover his feet and lie down" and await his instructions" (3:4). Ruth complies. On awakening, Boaz asks her who she is, and she replies: "I am your handmaid Ruth. Spread your robe over your handmaid, for you are a redeeming kinsman" (3:9 NJPS).
Acknowledging he is a close relative, Boaz blesses her and agrees to do all that is required. He notes that "all the elders of my town know what a fine woman you are" (3:11 NJPS). However, Boaz advises her that she has a male relative closer than he. Ruth remains in submission at his feet until she returns to the city in the morning.
Early that morning, Boaz goes to the city gate to meet with the other male relative before the town elders. The relative is not named. Boaz addresses him as ploni almoni "so and so." The relative, unwilling to jeopardize the inheritance of his own estate by marrying Ruth, relinquishes his right of redemption, thus freeing Boaz to marry Ruth. They transfer the property, redeeming it, and ratify the redemption by the nearer kinsman taking off his shoe and handing it over to Boaz. Ruth 4:7 notes for later generations that:
COMMENTRY
Now this was formerly done in Israel in cases of redemption or exchange: to validate any transaction, one man would take off his sandal and hand it to the other. Such was the practice in Israel.
Boaz and Ruth are then married and have a son. The women of the city celebrate Naomi's joy in finding a redeemer to preserve her family name. Naomi takes the child and places it on her bosom.
The child is named Obed, whom the reader discovers is "the father of Jesse, the father of David" (Ruth 4:13–17); that is, he the grandfather of King David.
The book concludes with an appendix tracing the Davidic genealogy all the way back from Perez, "whom Tamar bore to Judah", through to Obed, down to David.
LEVIRATE Marriage
Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow. Levirate marriage has been practiced by societies with a strong clan structure in which exogamous marriage (i.e. marriage outside the clan) is forbidden.
THINGS TO REMEMBER
Uniqueness: Ruth is the first book in the Bible named after a woman and the only book named after a Gentile.
Settings: Bethlehem, Moab, Back to Bethlehem
Meaning of Ruth's Name: "Friendship"
Key Verse: Ruth 1:16
Key Chapter: Ruth moves from widowhood and poverty to marriage and wealth.
Major Theme: Care begets care - Ruth cares for Naomi; Boaz cares for Ruth; God cares for all of them.
Theology: This story gives an account of how a Gentile woman became one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ.
When Ruth's first husband dies, she forsakes her idolatrous kindred and follows Naomi, her Hebrew mother-in-law to Bethlehem. There Ruth marries a wealthy landowner.
Boaz was the son of Rahab, the harlot who helped the spies.
Boaz's Genealogy:
Rahab - Boaz's mother
Obed - Boaz's son
Jesse - Obed's son
David - Jesse's son
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