Ruth the Moabitess

One of the most appealing stories in the Bible is that of Ruth the alien whose love for her deceased husband and her husband's mother led her to forsake her own land and her own gods to share that mother's life in the land of Israel and serve the God of Israel. The narrative is an exquisite cameo of Israel's occupancy of the Promised Land immediately after the Conquest. It is eloquent, not so much for what it does say, as what it does not say, and what can be read between the lines. It is built around what is called the Levirate law, and is the most complete exposition of the operation of that law which the Bible contains; to understand the story aright it is necessary to know something about the law.

Moses the Lawgiver had included in the Law given at Sinai a provision to cater for the position created when a man died childless, and no heir was left to inherit his holding in the land. The arrangement was intended and suited only for the primitive form of agricultural community which was to be Israel's lot for quite a few centuries following the Conquest. It is presupposed that in most families where a relatively young husband died, there would be younger unmarried brothers, and it provided that when this eventuality arose one of the brothers should marry the widow, the first child of the marriage being counted the child of the dead man and lawful heir to his estate. It is not clear what happened if the remaining brothers were all married, but since the Mosaic Law did not preclude a man from having two wives, as such unions were not unknown, it may be that no difficulty existed. In later times it seems that any available near relative could assume the obligation and this appears to have been the case in this instance.

The scene of the story as it is related in the Book of Ruth is set partly in Judah and partly in the adjoining land of Moab on the other side of the Dead Sea. The period was during the century immediately following Israel's entry into the land and soon after the death of Joshua. Precise dating is questionable but casual allusions in the story do make it possible to construct a possible framework which is probably true within ten years or so either way.

Elimelech, of the tribe of Judah and closely related to Salmon the founder of Bethlehem ‑ probably his cousin ‑ lived with his wife Naomi and two young sons in the district of Bethlehem. The land was smitten by famine and the family emigrated to the country of Moab some hundred miles away and settled there; before long Elimelech died and left Naomi with the two boys, by now growing into manhood. They both married Moabitish girls and the family settled down; the sons were more Moabite than Israelite in sympathies and it seems there was no question of a return to Judah. Then, unexpectedly, both sons died, still young, probably while still in their twenties, and Naomi was left alone with her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth.

This is where the action of the story begins. Naomi decided at once to return to Judah. The inference is that the decision to go to Moab was Elimelech's and that Naomi had accompanied him only because of duty; her heart remained in the land of Divine promise. Her character as presented in the story is that of a reverent, trustful woman of faith. The fact that her husband had willingly abandoned the land which his people had laboured and suffered forty years in the wilderness to attain, ignoring the promise God had made respecting the material prosperity which would be the lot of Israel whilst they retained loyalty to him, shows that he was probably one of those who at this very time, after Joshua's death "forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Jud.2.12). It was this apostasy which brought upon Israel their first great disaster, the famine, and the invasion and oppression of Chushan-Rishathaim, the ruler of Aram-Naharaim, who they served eight years until Othniel arose and delivered them (Jud.3.8-9). Naomi's decision to return was strengthened by the news from Judah that "the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread." (Ruth 1.6) and when she arrived she found a plentiful harvest in full swing; this, under the provisions of the Mosaic covenant, could only mean that the people had repented of their apostasy and re-affirmed their loyalty to God so that her return must have been in the early years of Othniel's leadership and their stay in Moab coincident with the time of the invasion and oppression.

Naomi could see no future in Judah for the two girls. She advised ‑ even entreated ‑ them to leave her and find other husbands of their own people. Orpah took her advice and went back; Ruth refused to do so. In words of compelling beauty, some of the most beautiful in the Old Testament, she affirmed her resolve to stay with the older woman, come what may. Judah was a strange land to her, Judah's God an unknown God, but she would accept both in her love for her dead husband's mother. "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; whither thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." (Ruth 1.16-17). And so Ruth came to Bethlehem.

They arrived destitute. What possessions they did have had been left behind in Moab. An ass, on which the older woman rode, a few clothes and one or two pots and pans probably constituted their worldly wealth. For shelter they most likely found an abandoned cottage in which they settled down to face the future. Naomi still possessed her legal right to the family plot of land which they had left to go to Moab; it was probably being farmed by someone else in her absence but it would be restored to her after the next harvest without question. With no menfolk to work it the land was only a liability. Naomi was herself too old to work. Ruth took the initiative; she was to be the bread-winner, and she proposed as a first step to go gleaning in one of the harvest fields to acquire some store of grain for their immediate subsistence. The Mosaic Law required all farmers to leave the corers of their fields unreaped with liberty for the needy to glean it at will. By means of hard work Ruth would be able to gather a sufficiency for their immediate needs. There is no hint of reluctance or complaint; willingly she had elected to share Naomi's life and fortunes and if, in the lack of a husband, this meant what it always did in such a society, poverty and hardship, Ruth accepted the position with serenity and quietness of mind. To what extent, at this stage, she looked to the God of Israel for guidance and help it is not possible to say from the story; probably that came later as she became more accustomed to the ways of Israel.

Nevertheless God was not unmindful. Of all the farmers in whose fields she might conceivably find herself gleaning, "her hap" says the narrative "was to light on a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech". By an overruling providence of God, we must be sure, she had been guided to the man who had both power and will to help them in their plight. Boaz was a son of Salmon, who entered the land with Joshua, married Rahab of Jericho, and was the most important man in the community. Boaz himself was "a mighty man of wealth", but not only so, he was also an upright and God-fearing man and respected by his employees. Coming into the field in which Ruth was working he saluted his men with the greeting "The Lord be with you" to which they responded "the Lord bless thee". It is easy to see that here was a man who did not run away to Moab or anywhere else when famine and invasion afflicted the land; he stood his ground and maintained his loyalty to God and now, in consequence, as the Mosaic Law promised, he was prosperous and secure.

It was not long before Boaz noticed the stranger gleaning so industriously in his field and enquired her identity. The Hebrew term he used ‑ rendered "damsel" in the A.V. - indicates that Ruth, although a widow, was still in her twenties, and it is obvious that he looked on her with more than passing interest. The fact that she was a Moabitess, of an alien race upon which the Israelites normally looked with distaste and enmity, weighed nothing with Boaz against the fact that she had willingly entered the commonwealth of Israel. He had evidently heard her story: "It hath fully been shown me" he told her gently "all that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust". Boaz' own mother, Rahab of Jericho, was an alien likewise accepted into Israel; this fact may well have inclined him to sympathy for the woman standing before him. Doubtless conscious of the many injunctions of the Mosaic Law concerning treatment of the "stranger that is within thy gates", he gave instructions that Ruth's presence among his reapers was to be respected and her gleaning facilitated, enjoining her to remain in his own fields in the company of his women servants, and so left her. He even went so far as to instruct his workers to allow her to glean from the standing sheaves, and to let fall reaped corn purposely to give her the richer gathering. Human nature being what it is, there is not much doubt that the reapers, perceiving their master's interest in this young stranger, assisted her with a will, so that by the end of the day Ruth had gathered and threshed out for herself some five gallons of ripe barley.

So passed some three months, from April to early July, whilst the barley harvest ran its course and was followed by wheat harvest. Ruth gleaned assiduously every day and went home every night to her mother-in-law. Naomi is not likely to have been idle all this time; she may have found some means of contributing a little to the family income, and in any case she would be re-establishing herself as a member of the community. She also had an important matter to think about ‑ Ruth's future. Without much doubt she first wanted to satisfy herself that Ruth would not change her mind and return, after all, to the easier life in Moab, where she still apparently possessed living parents. That decided, she must then set in motion the processes of the Levirate Law which would both secure a husband for her daughter-in-law and settle the question of the landed estate which had been the property of her sons and would now pass to her daughter-in-law's first son.

It must have been a cause of considerable gratification to the older woman when she concluded, from her knowledge, so far as it went, of the ramifications of her husband's family tree, that the nearest surviving relative of the dead Mahlon, the one therefore who must act as the goel, to marry Ruth and raise up a son to Mahlon, was none other than the wealthy and evidently very likeable Boaz. With his known loyalty to the Mosaic Law there would be no doubt as to his concurrence, and in any case his personal interest in Ruth must by now have become general knowledge in the community so that Naomi might well have begun to feel that a happy solution to all her problems was in sight.

So she instructed Ruth in the manner she must make the customary formal approach to claim the benefit of the Law. The third chapter of the Book tells the story, how that Ruth adorned herself in her best raiment and joined Boaz in the threshing barn where he was finishing the day's work with his reapers. There, when all had composed themselves to rest and the others were all asleep, she made her plea, and Boaz listened. What were his feelings at that moment we do not know, for they are not recorded, but what he had to say to her was in all probability a crushing blow to her hopes as well as to his. Gladly, he said, would he have done as she desired, but -"it is true that I am thy near kinsman; howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I". An unknown stranger had the right to take Ruth and to him must she bear the son who would take the inheritance. Perhaps that was the moment when Ruth's determination to remain a child of Israel, with all the obligation it might entail, was put to its severest test. That she passed the test and emerged triumphant is evinced by the fact that the matter proceeded according to law, and the unknown kinsman was brought upon the scene. "Tarry this night" said Boaz gently "and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform the part of a kinsman unto thee, well: let him do the kinsman's part; but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth; lie down until the morning."

The identity of the kinsman is shrouded in a certain obscurity. His name is not given. This in the O.T. narratives usually means that the one concerned is an irreligious or apostate character and not worthy of record; the omission of the man's name is a mute condemnation. This kinsman was certainly irreligious for in the end he flatly refused to do his bounden duty. Boaz had lost no time in convening a court of the elders of Bethlehem before whom the case had to be heard, and securing the attendance of the kinsman. That worthy evidently failed to realise the implications of the matter, for upon hearing that family land standing in the name of the two deceased sons of Elimelech was awaiting a claimant he promptly entered his claim. Upon learning, however, that part of the contract was to marry Ruth so that the land might pass to her son and not to himself after all he hurriedly washed his hands of the whole affair. "I cannot redeem" he said "lest I mar mine own inheritance" and then, perhaps a trifle maliciously, to Boaz "redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it." The ground of his refusal is not immediately self-explanatory but it may well have been a fear that this woman who was childless after a term of marriage to Mahlon might fail to give him a son and succeed to his own land, and so his inheritance would fall into the same condition as the deceased Mahlon's. At any rate, Mosaic Law or no Mosaic Law, he wanted nothing to do with it.

So Boaz married Ruth, and of their descendants was born some two hundred and fifty years later David, king of Israel; and a thousand years after that, Jesus, the son of Mary. The story of Ruth the Moabitess probably owes its inclusion in the Bible to that fact, but being thus included it remains an eloquent testimony to the far-reaching consequences of the love and faith displayed by this alien girl who embraced the obligations and privileges of the commonwealth of Israel in full assurance that God would receive her.

AOH