Naomi, her husband and two sons are economic migrants. While in their adopted land, the sons marry native women. In time the three men die leaving the three women without means. Naomi and one of her daughters-in-law journey back to Naomi’s homeland and work to secure a future for themselves. Let us now look at the text of Ruth in more detail.
Our story begins around 1150BC in one of the tribal territories that one day will coalesce into a kingdom under David. Since the conquest of Canaan these territories are governed by tribal elders. On occasion some of them temporarily unite for mutual defense under a type of warlord. These are the famed “Judges” of the book of the same name. A small family from Bethlehem in the tribal lands of Ephram has made its way Moab. The Moabites are descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Both the language and culture would have been similar. It is possible there are some unresolved feelings. It was a Moabite king who would not allow the Israelites to cross over his territory as they made their way to the promised land, and he called upon the services of the prophet Balam to curse them (Numbers 22-24).
The decision to emigrate is triggered by a prolonged famine. The immigrants are Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. The sons, comfortable in a new land, take Moabite women as wives. Their names are Orpha and Ruth. Misfortune visits. Elimelech dies. Before the sons have children, they both die. Suddenly there are three widows, alone in a tribal society wherein a woman needs a man to give family name, identity, and support.
Naomi knows her best chances are to return to her native land. The famine has ended, and she knows clan ties are her only hope. The clan has a duty to care for the widowed and orphaned. But Naomi is much more than her practicality. Her daughters-in-law set out to go with her. Sincere love seems to bond them. Impoverished Naomi sagaciously urges them to return to their families. She cares for them and their futures. If they return to their families they will have some security, and even the chance of another marriage. She has nothing to offer them. Yet, they adamantly cling to their mother-in-law. [I do not wish to engage in stereotypes but feel I ought to pause here to allow that seemingly extraordinary situation to be absorbed.]
Orpha comes to heed the wisdom of Naomi’s argument. She turns and goes back to her family. Ruth will not be parted. The love between them is palpable. Naomi presses her three times to return, but Ruth declares in moving words that today often find their way into wedding vows: “Do not press me to leave you…Where you go, shall I go. Where you lodge, shall I lodge. Your people shall be my people. Your God shall be my God. Where you die, there shall I die, and there shall I be buried.” She then seals this by calling upon Naomi’s God: “May the Lord do thus!” Naomi cannot argue with a vow that has been consecrated by the invocation of God’s name. The two make the long trek to Bethlehem. Depending upon where they were in Moab this was a journey of a week or two. To care for themselves along the way they would have needed to rely upon whatever provisions they could carry and the charity of others.
When they arrive, Bethlehem, with a population of a few hundred, is abuzz with gossip. Naomi understands why tongues are wagging. She, ever astute, halts judgement in its path: “No longer call me Naomi [sweet—as in pleasant], but name me Mara [bitter], because God himself has dealt bitterly with me.” In the eyes of her world, she has been doubly cursed and punished by God for she has been deprived of both husband and children. All that matters in a woman’s life has been taken from her.
Besides the gossip, to what has she come? In his absence, her husband’s land ought to have been tended by either his next of kin or the clan. But such an arrangement was not always in force. What was the state of the house? Farm homes would have consisted of a few rooms with at least half the space reserved for storage and sheltering animals. Made of a mix of stone and mud brick with a thatched roof, they required consistent upkeep. It is obvious the land has not been tilled, and that she and Ruth have not the resources to make it viable because Naomi sends Ruth to gather grains in the fields of others. They seem at least they have some form of shelter from the weather and whatever wildlife might threaten them. It is the meagre existence of childless widows.
The law dictated that the owner of a field was never to completely clean the field. At least some stubble was to be left for the poor to gather and so sustain themselves. While Ruth is tirelessly toiling among the farms she comes to the fields owned by Boaz. He makes an appearance. That he is an honorable and pious man is told in his exchange with his workers. “The Lord be with you,” “The Lord bless you.” It seems his eyes immediately fall upon Ruth. “To whom does this woman belong?” There are in all probability a dozen or more working there, but Ruth catches his eye. The attraction seems unmistakable, or perhaps I read too much of Jane Austin in my youth. He tells her to stay on his property, and not to wander off to other fields. He instructs his men to ensure her safety and comfort. The story of her fidelity to her mother-in-law has reached him, and it would seem more than her looks make her attractive. Ruth’s character shines. She has asked permission to glean where she has every right to do so. She exhibits both humility and gratitude in bowing down to the ground before Boaz. Noting her faith, he blesses her in the name of the God she has embraced.
The intimacy is accelerated. He invites her to break bread. Now his workers are to leave sheaves standing for her, and even “accidentally” drop some of the gathered grain along the way. His largesse matches her dedication and hard work. When Ruth returns to Naomi with her bounty (an ephah or about 1/2 bushel of barley) she recounts her encounter with Boaz.
Naomi moves to redeem the “curses” under which they live. Tribal law obliges the next of kin of a man who has died without male heir to raise up in the widow a son to carry on the name of the deceased and to be the heir of his property. She knows Boaz to be a close relative, and so possibly their salvation. Naomi instructs Ruth to take Boaz at his word and to glean in his fields throughout the harvests of spring barley and early summer wheat.
The summer harvesting done, Boaz goes to thresh the wheat. Naomi tells Ruth to bathe, perfume, dress herself in her best, and go stealthily to the threshing floor where Boaz will be spending the night. She is to wait until he is asleep and then position herself at his feet, a suppliant pose. Ever dedicated to Naomi, she follows her instructions. At midnight Boaz is startled awake by her presence. She tells him: “Spread thy cloak over me.” The cloak is but a symbol for Boaz himself. In those few words in the dark of night, she invites him to exercise his rights over her. It is a proposal of marriage. He acknowledges her a serious-minded and pious woman who has not gone about flirtatiously chasing young men. He is obviously an older man. He is also quite moved, but being an honorable man tells her there is another who has better claim to being next of kin. He assures her he will resolve the matter swiftly. He wants no scandal and so bids her to stay until morning lest someone see she has been there throughout the night. He gives her a gift of barley. While ancient measures vary over time, by any measure “six measures” is an extraordinary amount—several bushels! How could she manage to carry that? As is usual with numbers in scripture, we ought to look upon them as symbols. Six is one less than perfection or completeness. He is bestowing upon her a promise of the full measure of his care to come.
The very next day Boaz gathers the prescribed number of Elders at the city gate where such matters are adjudicated. He calls the nearer kinsman, and in the presence of the elders invites him to take possession of the land belonging to Elimelech. It is a good offer, and this unnamed relative seems ready to grasp it. But as “Yes” is seemingly forming on his lips, Boaz interjects that it comes with Ruth, the widow of Elimelechs’s son. Suddenly, the prospect of gaining property loses its attraction. Now he will be obliged to provide a son in Ruth who will inherit the name of his deceased father and his land. He will gain nothing but the need to support Ruth and her son. He removes his shoe and hands it to Boaz. In this he symbolically renounces his right to “step foot” on the property. The rights surrendered, Boaz is free to take Ruth as his wife. Boaz then formally declares his rights to the property of Elimelech and his sons, and to Ruth, and his duty to continue the name of Elimelech’s family. The Elders and all the people in attendance bless him and pray for the fecundity of the marriage. In their blessing of Ruth, they prophetically join her with Rachel and Leah, the wives of Jacob. She indeed, like them, will become a matriarch of Israel.
Ruth bears a son. This is not simply the redemption of Ruth. We see how deeply she and Naomi are coupled. The blessings have fallen also upon her, and her status and security are restored. She becomes more than just the child’s nurse for as the women of the town proclaim: “A son has been born to Naomi!” His name is Obed. His son will be Jesse, the father of David. Thus, from the forsaken, the barren, and the gentile comes the root of the tree that will bear the great king, and in a thousand years, the Messiah.
Why is this tale a part of sacred scripture? Some scholars opine the work is a fiction whose purpose was to explain the existence of a Moabite in the family history of David. While it is common in Hebrew scripture for names to have some type of descriptive meaning for the one bearing the name, here every name does so. The first name we encounter, Elimelech, means God is king, and embodies the main thrust of the story—divine providence or lordship. Naomi, which is usually translated as sweetness, as in pleasant, can also be taken as a derivative of Naaman, a fertility goddess. Mahlon means sickness or sterility. Chilion means consumption. Orpha means the back of the neck or one who turns back. Ruth means companion. Mara, the name Naomi tells the townsfolk to henceforth call her, means bitter. Boaz means strength, and was the name given to one of the two free standing pillars that stood before the sanctuary of Solomon’s temple.
The date of this work is debated. Many think the courtly style and language place it somewhere during the reign of either David or Solomon (10th century BC). It would affirm the close relationship that at that time existed between Moab and Judea and confirm a Moabite connection to the Davidic line. It has also the flavour of the Wisdom-literature of Solomon’s reign. In an age when a woman was defined by the man to whom she belonged, these widows, these “man-less” women, hold onto each other even though by so doing they are without any surety in society. Love and fidelity to one another carry them above the world’s expectations of a woman and feminine abilities. It is a bold narrative building on Proverbs 14:1a: “A wise woman builds her house.” Some, however, propose a date around the time of the end of the Babylonian exile (mid-5th century BC). Here it could be read as a repudiation of the policies enforced by Ezra and Nehemiah which forbade marriage with gentiles and encouraged (at times demanded) divorce where such marriages had been contracted. Here also it would be aligned with the openness of the later prophets, and the practice of some of the rabbis among the Diaspora to receive converts into Judaism. Reflecting these two contrary positions is the text’s placement in the corpus of scripture. The Septuagint or Greek version of the Jewish canon (3rd to 1st century BC), which tends to place works in chronological order, places it among the last works of scripture. The 4th century AD translation of the Greek text into Latin by St. Jerome places it where it would seemingly belong in the historical flow, that is after the Book of Judges which deals with the age of tribal leaders and before the First Book of Samuel which deals with the beginnings of a kingdom.
However, it is its spirituality that merits its placement in the sacred canon. Faith in the Lord weaves its way throughout the narrative. We begin with Ruth embracing of Naomi’s God. We end with the blessing by Elders and people. Throughout the name of the Lord keeps being invoked. But pause and consider the situation of these two women. Their lives are torn apart with grief. Husbands have been taken from them. Children and the prospect of children are dead. They are left forlorn, bereaved, impoverished. All they have is each other. And clinging to each other they move on in some indecipherable mix of determination and faith. In their obvious love, their dedication to one another, their care for one another they will play into God’s hands and move human history toward its pivot. It is a tale of God’s providence and of faith—in one another and in God. We hear in this tale that among the vicissitudes of our lives God plans in terms of eternity. From the tatters of two lives God sets in motion the rise of a monarchy, and out of its numerous risings and fallings creates the space and time for another son to be born in Bethlehem who is “the restorer of life” for not only Naomi and Ruth, but for us all.