*The book of Ruth tells of a young Moabite widow who, out of love for her widowed Israelite mother-in-law, abandoned her own culture, declaring, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth serves as a wonderful example of God’s providential care of his people, and of his willingness to accept Gentiles who seek him.
*Ruth was an ancestor of Christ and the great-grandmother of David.
*The author is unknown, but the genealogy at the end suggests that it was written during or after the time of David.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife’s name was Naomi. They had two sons named Mahlon and Chilion.
But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi died, and she was left with her two sons. Both her sons married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. They lived there about ten years, until both Mahlon and Chilion died, and Naomi was left without her husband or her two sons.
She heard in Moab that the Lord had come to aid of his people by providing food for them. Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home.
Naomi told her daughters-in-law to each go back to their mother’s house, and “May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept, but they said they would go with her to her people.
Naomi told them again to go, there was no hope in marrying if staying with her. She explained that she was too old to remarry, and even if she did, she did not expect them to wait around in case she had more sons, and for those sons to grow up to marry them.
At this they wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. Naomi tried to get Ruth to go with her sister-in-law but Ruth refused saying,
“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
-Ruth, 1:16-17
When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said no more. The two of them set out until they came to Bethlehem. When they got there, the whole town was stirred because of them, shocked to see Naomi.
Naomi explained that the Lord had dealt very bitterly with her. She went away full and the Lord had brought her back empty. They arrived in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, from the clan of Elimelech. He was a man of standing whose name was Boaz.
Ruth told Naomi that she would go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes she found favor. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz.
Boaz asked the foreman who the woman was, and he explained what was going on, and how Ruth asked to glean behind the harvesters. So Boaz spoke to Ruth and told her not to go to any other field, for she was safe there with the other girls. He had told the men not to touch her, and she could drink water from their jars when she was thirsty.
Ruth asked Boaz why she had found such favor in his eyes, and he explained how he had been told about her dedication and kindness to her mother-in-law; and how she left her parents and her homeland to live with a people she didn’t know. He said, “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge in.”
Ruth had dinner with them and ate until she was full, and even had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men to ensure Ruth’s labors were productive. He told them to pull out some stalks for her from their bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and not to rebuke her.
Ruth gleaned in the field until evening . Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it accounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town to Naomi. Ruth also gave her what she had left over from dinner. They discussed the day and who it was that noticed her. Ruth explained that his name Boaz and Naomi said, “The Lord bless him! He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”
*Boaz credits Ruth with demonstrating the same virtue. Redemption is a key concept in Ruth. The kinsman-redeemer was responsible for protecting the interests of needy members of the extended family, e.g., to provide an heir for a brother who had died, to redeem land that a poor relative had sold outside the family, to redeem a relative who had been sold into slavery, and to avenge the killing of a relative. “Avenger” and “kinsman-redeemer” are translations of the same Hebrew word. Naomi was encouraged when she heard that the Lord had led Ruth to the fields of a relative who might serve as their kinsman-redeemer. This moment of Naomi’s awakened hope is the crucial turning point of the story.
One day Naomi told Ruth that she should try to find a home for her. She told her that Boaz, a kinsman of theirs, would be winnowing barley that night on the threshing floor to protect it from theft. She told her to wash and perfume herself (like a bride), and put on her best clothes. She was to go down to the threshing floor, but not let anyone see her.
Then when the festivities of eating and drinking were over and Boaz went to lie down, she should note the place where he was lying. Then she would go and uncover his feet and lie down, (these actions would be a request for marriage.) He would then tell her what to do. Ruth agreed and did everything she was told to do.
When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying at this feet.
He asked who she was, and she said her name and that she was his servant. Then she told him to spread the corner of his garment over her, (a request for marriage) since he was a kinsman-redeemer.
*There is a play on words “wings” of the Lord and “corners” of the garment, both signifying protection. Boaz is vividly reminded that he must serve as the Lord’s protective wing to watch over Ruth.
He told her that her kindness now was greater than before because she could’ve been running after younger men instead of him. He said he would do for her all that she asked, for everyone knew she was a woman of noble character. It was true that he was near of kin, but there was a kinsman-redeemer nearer than him.
He told her to stay there that night and in the morning if the other man wanted to redeem he could. If he would not be willing, then “as surely as the Lord lives,” he would do it. She stayed at his feet all night, but got up early and left before anyone could see her. There was not supposed to be women at the threshing floor. He gave her six measures of barley then went back to town.
Boaz found the other kinsman-redeemer and they sat down to talk with ten of the elders of the town. They discussed how Naomi was selling the piece of land that belonged to their brother Elimelech. Boaz suggested that the man buy it in front of all that were there. If he did not want to redeem it, then Boaz would, because he was the next in line.
The man said he would do it, until he learned that Ruth came with it. Ruth’s firstborn son would keep Mahlon’s name alive and would possess the ownership to the family inheritance. The man could not accept this obligation in threat of endangering his own estate. He told Boaz to redeem it himself, for he could not.
In order for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party must take off their sandal and give it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel. So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal. The elders and all who were there were witnesses to this exchange.
The elders said that they were witnesses, then blessed him saying, “May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.”
So Boaz took Ruth as his wife. She conceived and gave birth to a son. Then Ruth said to Naomi, “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
*Since seven was considered a number of completeness, to have seven sons was the epitome of all family blessings in Israel. Here Ruth’s selfless devotion to Naomi receives its climactic acknowledgement.
Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap (possibly symbolizing adoption) and cared for him. It was through Ruth, that aged Naomi who could no longer bear children, obtained an heir in place of Mahlon. The child was named Obed (meaning “servant,” or possibly in its full form “servant of the Lord”). Obed became the father of Jesse, the father of David.