The story of Ruth came to pass a hundred (31) years after Othniel's
reign. Conditions in Palestine were of such a nature that if a judge
said to a man, "Remove the mote from thine eye," his reply was, "Do
thou remove the beam from thine own." (32) To chastise the Israelites
God sent down them one of the ten seasons of famine which He had
ordained, as disciplinary measures for mankind, from the creation of
the world until the advent of Messiah. (33) Elimelech (34) and his
sons, (35) who belonged to the aristocracy of the land, attempted
neither to improve (36) the sinful generation whose transgressions had
called forth the famine, nor alleviated the distress that prevailed
about them. They left Palestine, and thus withdrew themselves from the
needy who had counted upon their help. They turned their faced to Moab.
(37) There, on account of their wealth and high descent, they were made
officers in the army. (38) Mahlon and Chilion, the sons of Elimelech,
rose to still higher distinction, they married the daughters of the
Moabite king Eglon (39) But this did not happen until after the death
of Elimelech, who was opposed to intermarriage with the heathen. (40)
Neither the wealth nor the family connections of the two men helped
them before God. First they sank into poverty, and, as they continued
in their sinful ways, God took their life. (41)
Naomi, their mother, resolved to return to her home. Her two
daughters-in-law were very dear to her on account of the love they had
borne her sons, a love strong even in death, for they refused to marry
again. (42) Yet she would not take them with her to Palestine, because
she foresaw contemptuous treatment in store for them as Moabitish
women. (43) Orpah was easily persuaded to remain behind. She
accompanied her mother-in-law a distance of four miles, and then she
took leave of her, shedding only four tears as she bade her farewell.
Subsequent events showed that she had not been worthy of entering into
the Jewish communion, for scarcely had she separated from Naomi when
she abandoned herself to an immoral life. But with God nothing goes
unrewarded. For the four miles which Orpah travelled with Naomi, she
was recompensed by bringing forth four giants, Goliath and his three
brothers. (44)
Ruth's bearing and history were far different. She was determined to
become a Jewess, and her decision could not be shaken by what Naomi, in
compliance with the Jewish injunction, told her of the difficulties of
the Jewish law. Naomi warned her that the Israelites had been enjoined
to keep Sabbaths and feast days, (45) and that the daughters of Israel
were not in the habit of frequenting the threatres and circuses of the
heathen. Ruth only affirmed her readiness to follow Jewish customs.
(46) And when Naomi said: "We have one Torah, one law, one command; the
Eternal our God is one, there is none beside Him," Ruth answered: "Thy
people shall be my people, thy God my God." (47) So the two women
journeyed together to Bethlehem. They arrived there on the very day on
which the wife of Boaz was buried, and the concourse assembled for the
funeral saw Naomi as she returned to her home. (48)
Ruth supported herself and her mother-in-law sparsely with the ears of
grain which she gathered in the fields. Association with so pious a
woman as Naomi (49) had already exercised great influence upon her life
and ways. Boaz was astonished to notice that if the reapers let more
than two ears fall, in spite of her need she did not pick them up, for
the gleaning assigned to the poor by law does not refer to quantities
of more than two ears inadvertently dropped at one time. (50) Boaz also
admired her grace, her decorous conduct, her modest demeanor. (51) When
he learned who she was, he commended her for her attachment to Judaism.
To his praise she returned: "Thy ancestors found no delight even in
Timna, (52) the daughter of a royal house. As for me, I am a member of
a low people, abominated by thy God, and excluded from the assembly of
Israel." For the moment Boaz failed to recollect the Halakah bearing on
the Moabites and Ammonites. A voice from heaven reminded him that only
their males were affected by the command of exclusion. (53) This he
told to Ruth, and he also told her of a vision he had had concerning
her descendants. For the sake of the good she had done to her
mother-in-law, kings and prophets would spring from her womb. (54)
Boaz showed kindness not only to Ruth and Naomi, but also to their
dead. He took upon himself the decent burial of the remains of
Elimelech and his two sons. (55) All this begot in Naomi the thought
that Boaz harbored the intention of marrying Ruth. She sought to coax
the secret, if such there was, from Ruth. (56) When she found that
nothing could be elicited from her daughter-in-law, she made Ruth her
partner in a plan to force Boaz into a decisive step. Ruth adhered to
Naomi's directions in every particular, except that she did not wash
and anoint herself and put on fine raiment, until after she had reached
her destination. She feared to attract the attention of the lustful, if
she walked along the road decked out in unusual finery. (57)
The moral conditions in those days were very reprehensible. Though Boaz
was high-born and a man of substance, yet he slept on the
threshing-floor, so that his presence might act as a check upon
profligacy. In the midst of his sleep, Boaz was startled to find some
one next to him. At first he thought it was a demon. Ruth calmed his
disquietude (58) with these words: "Thou art the head of the court, thy
ancestors were princes, thou art thyself an honorable man, and a
kinsman of my dead husband. As for me, who am in the flower of my
years, since I left the home of my parents where homage is rendered
unto idols, I have been constantly menaced by the dissolute young men
around. (59) So I have come hither that thou, who art the redeemer,
mayest spread out thy skirt over me." (60) Boaz gave her the assurance
that if his older brother Tob (61) failed her, he would assume the
duties of a redeemer. The next day he came before the tribunal of the
Sanhedrin (62) to have the matter adjusted. Tob soon made his
appearance, for an angel led him to the place where he was wanted, (63)
that Boaz and Ruth might not have long to wait. Tob, who was not
learned in the Torah, did not know that the prohibition against the
Moabites had reference only to males. Therefore, he declined to marry
Ruth. (64) So she was taken to wife (65) by the octogenarian (66) Boaz.
Ruth herself was forty years old (67) at the time of her second
marriage, and it was against all expectations that her union with Boaz
should be blessed with offspring, a son Obed the pious. (68) Ruth lived
to see the glory of Solomon, but Boaz died on the day after the
wedding. (69)