The Book of Ruth is named after its central figure, Ruth, who became the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus (Ruth 4:21–22; Matt 1:1,5). It is one of only two Biblical books bearing the name of a woman; the other is Esther.
The author of this literary gem focuses on Ruth’s selfless devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi (1:16–17; 2:11–12; 3:10; 4:15) and her future husband Boaz’s kindness to them both (chapters 2–4). The book seeks to underscore the importance of faithful love among God’s kingdom people.
Ruth is a history book, and is placed between Judges and 1 Samuel because it is set ‘in the days when the judges judged’. That time was characterised by moral and religious decay, oppression by foreign powers and national dis-unity. The book describes a rare time of peace between Israel and Moab.
Before the main story commences, we learn of an Israelite family from Bethlehem — Elimelech and his wife Naomi, and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion. They had emigrated to the nearby country of Moab. Elimelech’s sons married Moabite women: Mahlon married Ruth and Chilion married Orpah. Elimelech later died.
Naomi’s two sons later died in Moab (1:4), maybe following disease or famine; the book tells us the Moabite harvest had failed.
The books starts with Naomi returning to Bethlehem. She told her daughters-in-law to leave her and return to their respective mothers and re-marry. Orpah reluctantly left; but Ruth was defiant, and said to her mother-in-law Naomi, ‘Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will 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 even death separates you and me’ (1:16–17). That a foreigner from Moab shows this amount of love shows the truth that participation in the kingdom of God is decided, not by blood or birth, but by conformity of life to the will of God. Her devotion to her mother-in-law marks her a true daughter of Israel despite being a gentile and a worthy ancestor of David. Further, her place in that ancestry shows that all nations will be represented in the kingdom of David’s greater Son.
Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem just as the barley harvest was starting. They were by now totally destitute so, in order to support herself and her mother-in-law, Ruth went to the fields to glean. (Leviticus comes to life here, with its injunction to leave part of the harvest for the needy, and with all of its concern and compassion for the underprivileged within society.) By chance, the first field Ruth visited belonged to a local grandee called Boaz. He was kind to Ruth because he knew of her loyalty to her mother-in-law. Later, Ruth told her mother-in-law Naomi of Boaz’s kindness, and the way he let her glean in his field through the remainder of the harvest season.
We then learn that Boaz was a close relative of Naomi’s husband and legally obliged to marry Mahlon’s widow, Ruth, in order to carry on his bloodline. He agreed to do so.
Boaz and Ruth then married and had a son, who was named Obed. He was ‘the father of Jesse, the father of David’ (Ruth 4:13–17), that is, the grandfather of King David.
The book of Ruth is a Hebrew short story told with considerable skill. It is unexcelled in its compactness, vividness, warmth, beauty and effectiveness. Most striking is the contrast between the two main characters, Ruth and Boaz: the one is young, foreign, destitute and a widow, while the other is middle-aged, well-to-do and an Israelite securely established in his home community.
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