16: Ruth — Introduction and Excerpts

Author

The author of Ruth is unknown, as is the time at which it was written. Like Judges, some scholars believe the prophet Samuel wrote this book, but there is no evidence in the book or elsewhere to support this.

The writer does refer to “the time of the Judges,” [1:1] as if this time is over, which means the book probably was written sometime after the kingdom was established (around 990 BCE.). The inclusion of Obed, Jesse and David, Ruth’s descendants, also points to this general time of writing.

Context

As we learned in Lesson 15, “the time of the Judges” was a very difficult period for Israel. The people’s repeated refusal to follow the commandments and decision to “do what is right in their own eyes,” [Judges 21:25], led to defeat and oppression by the Canaanites who had ruled the land for more than 400 years. Each time the people repented God raised a leader to defeat Israel’s enemies and restore prosperity – until the next round of disobedience.

Famines were not uncommon in Palestine because of the desert conditions, although the particular hardship that led to the events in this book is not identified.

Structure

Ruth is a straightforward narrative of a Gentile woman from Moab who married into an Israelite family when it migrated to Moab to escape a famine in Israel. When all the Israelite men died Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, decided to return to Israel. Ruth joined her in one of the Bible’s strongest depictions of friendship and kinship. Once back in Bethlehem, Ruth met Boaz, a landowner and relative of her deceased husband. Ruth and Boaz married and had children. King David was their great-grandson.

Major Themes

Friendship and kinship are the major themes of this book. Ruth is a shining example of friendship in leaving her own country and family to stay with Naomi; and she is a model for kinship in supporting her mother-in-law in place of her own deceased children.

Boaz is also an example of kinship. First, he honors the position of another person who is more closely related to Naomi’s husband. When that person does not “redeem” his right, Boaz fully redeems his kinship obligation by taking over care of the family’s land and by marrying Ruth so the family name will be preserved [see “Kinship” Note below].

Ruth’s story is also another example of – and hint toward – God’s intention to include all Gentiles as well as Jews in his kingdom.

GET INTO THE WORD

1. What do we know about the author of this book? What do we know about when it was written? What hints does the writer provide?

2. When does this story take place? Where did this occur? What is significant about this time period? What problems did the people encounter?

3. What are the major events of this story? Who are the primary individuals involved? 

4. What are the primary themes of this book? How are the people involved examples of these themes. What does the Bible say about the importance of family? About the importance of names?

5. What does this story tell us about God’s plans for his kingdom?

Bible Trivia:
Sandals were once symbols of agreement or commitment [Ruth 4:7-8], but by Jesus’ time sandals were symbols of worthlessness – John the Baptizer said he was not even worthy to untie the laces on Jesus’ sandals [John 1:27].

More trivia:
Boaz is connected to the only two women named in Jesus’ ancestry: his mother was Rahab [Joshua 2] and his wife was Ruth [check Matt 1:3].

Kinsman-Redeemer: 
Mosaic Law upheld the importance of family by requiring a man to marry his brother’s wife (and perform the “duty” of a husband) if the brother died without having any children – in order to preserve the family name [Deut 25:5-10]. In fact, if the man refused to marry his brother’s widow, the man’s wife was to publicly humiliate him by pulling off his sandal and spitting in his face [vv. 9-10]. Similarly, a kinsman had the right and obligation to purchase land a man might leave if he died without heirs, to keep the property within the family.

Giving:
The Old Testament presents three concepts regarding giving.

First Fruits: the first part of the harvest or the first born from a person’s herd or flock. God established the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) and required the Israelites to bring the first part of their harvest to the priests. 
      Giving God the first part of our earnings is a sign of our trust in his promise to provide everything else we need: Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine,
[Proverbs 3:9-10].
      Paul noted that Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died, [1 Cor 15:20].

Tithe: “tenth” – Abraham introduces the concept of a tithe when he gives a tenth of everything he won in battle to Melchizedek, “priest of God Most High,” [Gen 14:20].
      God formalized the practice in his law, requiring every Israelite to give a tenth of his or her produce (grain, wine, animals, oil) at least every third year – for use by the Levites as well as the resident aliens, the orphans and the widows in your towns, [Deut 14:28-29]. The law also says, all tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord’s; they are holy to the Lord, [Lev 27:30].
      The Israelites did not always honor this commandment. God told the prophet Malachi the people are robbing me – the whole nation of you! Bring the full tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down on you an overflowing blessing, [Mal 3:9-10].
Gleaning: gathering the crops left behind after the harvest. God wanted the people to provide for those less fortunate by deliberately not harvesting every possible grape or grain so that some would be left: When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this, [Deut 24:21-22, also check Lev 19:9-10], (Ruth is gleaning when she meets Boaz).

1¹⁵ So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” ¹⁶ But Ruth said,
“Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 
¹⁷ Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” 
¹⁸ When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

Ruth meets Boaz [2:8-13]

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” ¹⁰Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” ¹¹ But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” ¹³ Then she said, “May I continue to find favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.”

Ruth follows Naomi’s instructions [3:6-11]

⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her. ⁷ When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and he was in a contented mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came stealthily and uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸ At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet, was a woman! ⁹ He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.”  ¹⁰ He said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, do not be afraid, I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman.

Ruth and Boaz marry and have a son [4:13-17]

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a son. ¹⁴ Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! ¹⁵ He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.” ¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. ¹⁷ The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.  NRSV

GET INTO THE WORD

1. What is happening as this section begins? How did the situation develop [see above]? Who is speaking? Why is she speaking this way? How does the other person react?

2. Who is involved in the second segment? Where are they? What are they doing? What are they talking about? How do they relate to each other?

3. What does the man tell the woman to do? Why does he feel this way? What type of blessing does he give her? How does she respond?

4. What does Ruth do in the third segment? Why does she do this? What happens as a result of her actions? 

5. How does Boaz respond when he sees Ruth? What does Ruth call him? How does he react to this news? What does he promise her?

6. What happens as a result of Boaz’s actions? What type of family do Ruth and Boaz have? How do the other people respond to this? What do they say about the baby? Who else is part of this family?

GET PERSONAL

How do members of your family support each other? How has God helped you in supporting your family? How do you support your “brothers and sisters in Christ?”

Memory Verse: 
Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God, [1:16].

Next Lesson: 
1 Samuel 8: Warnings about a king, and 17: David and
Goliath

1:1. Bethlehem — a small town 5 miles south of Jerusalem. It did not have a reliable source of water so it did experience famine when the crops were parched.
Moab — the area directly east of Israel was conquered by the Israelites under Moses when the prophet Balam blessed them rather than curse them as the Moabite king Balak had requested [check Numbers 21-22 for details].
1:5. Left without her two sons and her husband — Naomi suffered the loss of social status as a widow and had no financial support because her sons had died as well.
1:13. Wait until they were grown — Mosaic law required that if a man died without children the man’s brother should marry the widow in order to carry on the family name; but in this case any future brothers/husbands would have a different father, not Elimelech.
1:16. Where you go . . . — Ruth’s commitment is to Naomi and her Jewish

heritage, including Yahweh.
2:8. Glean — see “Giving” Notes on above.
2:12. Wings — the Psalms also use this image of protection [check 36:7, 57:1, 61:4, 91:4].
3:7. Lie down — the threshing area was communal so sleeping by your pile of grain helped to keep thieves away.
Uncovered his feet and lay down — sleeping at a master’s feet was a fairly common custom for servants in the culture (in any event both would have been fully clothed).
3:9. Cloak — the Hebrew word also translates as “wing” – the image in 2:12.
Next-of-kin — in Hebrew “a person with the right to redeem” – see Notes above.
4:14. May his name be renowned — little did the women know that Ruth’s descendents would include the two greatest “kings” in Israel’s history: David and Jesus.