Ruth: Difference between revisions

'''Ruth''' ([[Hebrew]] '''ר֑וּת''', [[Name means::friend]]) (m. [[Married::2682 AM]], [[Married::Tammuz 2692 AM]]) was a [[Moab]]itish woman who married two [[Israel]]ites and became an ancestress of [[ancestor of::Jesus Christ]]. Her story is one of great faith, demonstrated almost flawlessly.<ref name=Barton>Barton GA, ''et al.'', "[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=483&letter=R Ruth, Book of]," ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906. Accessed January 20, 2009.</ref><ref name=women>"[http://www.womeninthebible.net/1.13.Ruth.htm Ruth, Naomi and Boaz: A Story of Loyalty and Love]," Women in the Bible, n.d. Accessed January 22, 2009.</ref><ref name=Constable>Constable TL, "[http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/ruth.pdf Notes on Ruth]," SonicLight.com, 2009. Accessed January 22, 2009.</ref><ref name=Levin>Levin M, "[http://www.torah.org/learning/ruth/class5.html Ruth]," Torah.org, 2005. Accessed January 20, 2009.</ref><ref name=Fox>Fox B, "[http://www.mesora.org/RabbiFox/Shavuot64.htm The Book of Ruth: A Lesson in Virtues]," Mesora.org, n.d. Accessed January 20, 2009.</ref><ref name=Gigot>Gigot, Francis. "[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13276a.htm Book of Ruth]." ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Accessed January 22, 2009.</ref><ref name=stevenson>Stevenson J, "[http://www.angelfire.com/nt/theology/ruth.html Ruth: the Romance of Redemption]," Redeemer Bible College, n.d. Accessed January 22, 2009.</ref>

[[Image:RuthFieldsHughes.jpg|right|250px]]Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem on or about 1 Abib 2692 AM, the beginning of the month of [[barley]] harvest. Ruth seems to have held no illusions about her status in Israel. She and Naomi were destitute, with no assets other than an estate that they could not manage and would probably have to sell. But Ruth familiarized herself with all the laws that the Israelites lived under, including those that made provision for the poor. This included the ''gleaning law.''<ref name=Constable/>{{Bible quote|Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger.|book=Leviticus|chap=19|verses=9-10|version=NASB}}

Ruth continued to glean for three months, through the barley and [[wheat]] harvests. Then Naomi held a frank discussion with Ruth. Naomi sought to provide for Ruth's security. Naomi specifically called Ruth's attention to Boaz' position as a possible redeemer, or ''go'el'' ([[Hebrew]] '''גֹאֵ֖ל'''). The ''go'el'' was the nearest male relative to an impoverished man, or especially a deceased man who had left no issue or whose estate was encumbered by debt. The duties of the ''go'el'' were these:

# The ''go'el'' must buy the estate in order to keep the land within the family.

# If the decedent left a widow, the ''go'el'' must marry the widow, and their first-born son would inherit the estate and preserve the name of the deceased.

The latter duty was an extension of the levirate law, which stated that a widow had the right to marry her late husband's brother, if he had one. {{Bible quote|When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, "My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me." Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, "I do not desire to take her," then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, "Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house." In Israel his name shall be called, "The house of him whose sandal is removed."|book=Deuteronomy|chap=25|verses=5-10|version=NASB}}

Mahlon and his brother were dead, but if levirate marriage were impossible, the ''go'el'' could still intervene.

[[Image:Soloruth.jpg|200px|right]]Naomi identified Boaz as the qualified ''go'el''. He was probably Elimelech's great-uncle. On the last night of the wheat harvest, Boaz would be winnowing his barley at the threshing floor (a special area of land reserved for winnowing). Naomi instructed Ruth to wash and anoint herself, dress herself in her most attractive attire, and go to the threshing floor secretly. Boaz would lie down next to a pile of barley, and Ruth was to uncover his feet and lie down beside him. He would then tell her what to do.

Later that night, Boaz awoke with a start and discovered a young woman lying at his feet. Surprised, he asked, "Who are you?" Ruth identified herself and made a frank proposal of marriage. She asked Boaz to spread his skirt over her (a Hebrew idiom for marriage), as was his duty to her as the ''go'el''.

Boaz then told her that in fact Elimelech had another, closer living relative than he. Boaz proposed to ask this other relative in the morning whether he was willing to act as the ''go'el''. If he was not, then Boaz was.

The marriage appears to have taken place in the fourth month of the Jewish year, the month following the wheat harvest. Ruth fell pregnant almost immediately, and her son [[Obed]] was born next spring. The residents of Bethlehem acclaimed his birth, saying, {{Bible quote|A son has been born to Naomi!|book=Ruth|chap=4|verses=17|version=NASB}}

The unnamed kinsman ([[Hebrew]] '''פְּלֹנִ֣י אַלְמֹנִ֑י''' or ''Peloni-Almoni'', or literally, "Mr. So-and-so"<ref name=ou>"[http://www.ou.org/chagim/shavuot/ruth.htm The Story of Ruth]," OU.org, n.d. Accessed January 20, 2009.</ref>) who is willing to redeem the land alone but not to redeem Ruth, is a type of any person or institution that human beings think can redeem them, though no one can offer the redemption that Christ offers.

{{reflist}}