Name means: “Pleasant.”
Also known as: Mara (“Bitter”), the name she used to describe herself upon her return to Bethlehem (Ruth 1:20).
Home: Originally Bethlehem (see the city’s profile at Luke 2:11), later Moab, and eventually Bethlehem again (Ruth 1:19).
Family: Wife and widow of Elimelech; mother of two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, who both preceded her in death; counted as the grandmother of Ruth’s son Obed (4:17), an ancestor of David and Jesus Christ.
Occupation: Homemaker.
Best known for: Allowing her widowed, Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth to return with her to Bethlehem and arranging Ruth’s marriage to Boaz.
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Name means: “Friendship.”
Home: Born in Moab, but relocated with her mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem in Judah after the death of her husband.
Family: Wife and widow of Mahlon; remarried Boaz by an extension of levirate marriage; mother of Obed, who was figuratively called the son of Naomi (Ruth 4:17); ancestor of David and Jesus Christ.
Occupation: Originally a homemaker, later a maidservant of Boaz (3:9), then a homemaker again.
Best known for: Insisting that her mother-in-law Naomi allow her to come to Bethlehem, making Naomi’s people and God her own nation and Lord (1:16, 17).
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The name Moab brings to mind a pair of unpleasant incidents from Israel’s past: the unseemly conception of Moab and the trouble his descendants caused Israel during their wilderness journey to the Promised Land.
Moab was born in the aftermath of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot fled from Sodom with his family, in effect taking the sin of the city with him into the wilderness. His wife disobeyed God’s instructions and died as a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26). Lot’s daughters got their father drunk so that he would lay with them and father their children. One daughter gave birth to Moab, the other to Ammon (19:30–38). Their descendants grew into nations that long plagued Israel.
The nation of Moab committed one of its most grievous offenses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Moab’s king attempted to hire Balaam the seer to curse the Israelites, but Balaam, compelled by the Lord, blessed them instead (Num. 22–24). Later, however, the seer proposed using Moabite women to seduce God’s people into idolatry. The plan resulted in the death of twenty-four thousand Israelites (see “Baal of Peor” at Num. 25:3 and “Playing with Fire” at Num. 31:15, 16). As a result, Mosaic law banned Moabites and Ammonites from ever becoming members of God’s community (Deut. 23:3).
Yet in spite of this history, from Moab came Ruth—and from Ruth, Obed; from Obed, Jesse; from Jesse, David (Ruth 4:18–22); and through David came Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:1, 5, 6). God accomplishes His purposes however He chooses, sometimes in ways that surprise us. His wisdom and glory exist above and beyond human failures; He is the God who can bring good out of any situation.
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Naomi’s name meant “Pleasant,” but her life had become anything but pleasant. Upon her return to Bethlehem, Naomi renamed herself Mara (“Bitter”), claiming that God had treated her bitterly. This was also the name of a place where God had tested His people as they set out on their Exodus journey. See Marah’s profile at Exodus 15:23.
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1. Naomi, a Jewish woman, and Orpah and Ruth, her Moabite daughters-in-law, outlive their Jewish husbands (Ruth 1:1–5).
Naomi returns to Israel and Ruth insists on accompanying her (Ruth 1:6–18). Probable route of Naomi and Ruth:
2. Naomi and Ruth settle in Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem, where Ruth meets and marries Boaz (Ruth 1:19—4:13).
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On the surface, the Book of Ruth appears to be a simple love story between Ruth, an impoverished widow, and Boaz, a wealthy landowner and presumed bachelor. But when considering the historical context, we can see that their relationship was subject to complex local customs and legal technicalities.
Gleaning
Gleaning was the process of going back over a field, orchard, or vineyard after the main harvest to gather every last bit of produce. The Law commanded that the poor be given the right of gathering any produce left behind after the harvest (see “Gleaning and the Poor” at Lev. 19:9, 10). As a just man, Boaz was committed to following the Law and allowed Ruth, an impoverished widow with no other means of support, to glean from his fields (Ruth 2).
The Law of the Redeeming Relative
After the Promised Land was divided among Israel’s tribes, each family endeavored to ensure that its portion remained in the family. Land was sometimes lost through poverty, but the Law solved this problem by giving family members the right to repurchase land their relatives had been forced to sell. The nearest relative of the land seller was called the “redeeming relative” or “kinsman-redeemer” (see “The Redeeming Relative” at Lev. 25:25).
Naomi had sold the family’s land (Ruth 4:3), possibly to support herself and Ruth. That put Elimelech’s nearest male relative in Bethlehem in a position to act as the redeeming relative (3:12; 4:4). This man, who initially agreed to repurchase the land (4:4), changed his mind when he learned that he would also have to marry Ruth—a requirement of the law of levirate marriage. The transaction would have jeopardized his immediate family’s financial situation and inheritance (see below).
That left Boaz, as the next closest male relative to Elimelech, with the choice to act as the redeeming relative (2:1, 20; 3:12; 4:4) and to marry Ruth. The decision probably cost him dearly; he would have had to consider not only the value of the land but also the loss of a potential dowry from a different match.
The Law of Inheritance
Ownership of land in Israel was determined through male heirs. Because Elimelech’s sons had died without fathering children, he had no heirs (Ruth 1:5). So when Naomi sold the family’s land, she sold its inheritance. Unless a redeeming relative repurchased the land, it would be lost to another family, at least until the next Jubilee year, when it was scheduled to revert to its original owner (see “The Year of Jubilee” at Lev. 25:8–17).
The initial, unnamed redeeming relative was glad to repurchase Elimelech’s land (Ruth 4:4). But when he realized that doing so would also mean taking Ruth as his wife, he changed his mind (4:6). Any male children that he fathered by Ruth would be legally considered the sons of Ruth’s first husband. (This was known as the law of levirate marriage; see below.) The land would never pass into his own family’s possession, and he would ruin his family’s inheritance by spending his wealth to repurchase Elimelech’s land.
The Law of Levirate Marriage
Without the law of levirate marriage, a man’s dying without sons would have created at least two potential problems. If a widow remarried outside the family, her family’s inheritance passed to her new family. Yet without remarrying, the widow might have no male family members to support her.
The law of levirate marriage addressed these issues. If a man died without leaving children, the man’s brother or nearest male relative was expected to marry the man’s widow and father an heir. The child was legally considered the child of the deceased man.
Naomi was presumably past her childbearing years, so the law of levirate marriage no longer applied to her. But it evidently still applied to Ruth, who by marrying into Elimelech’s family could provide an heir. The unnamed redeeming relative was not aware of his responsibility to Ruth until Boaz pointed it out (Ruth 4:5). At that point, the relative declined to buy the land.
As the next closest relative, Boaz had the responsibility to marry Ruth, and he fulfilled his levirate duty by fathering Obed (4:13, 21). According to the Law, Obed was counted as the son of Ruth’s first husband and was therefore the heir of Elimelech. The women of Bethlehem acknowledged this fact by referring to Obed as “a son born to Naomi” (4:17).
The Elders at the Gate
The transaction between the unnamed redeeming relative and Boaz took place in the presence of Bethlehem’s elders at the city’s gates (Ruth 4:1), the customary setting for civic and economic deliberations (Deut. 25:7; Judg. 5:8, 11; 2 Sam. 19:8). A city’s gates functioned much like courts or other public forums today.
Betrothal
A private transaction took place between Boaz and Ruth before his meeting with the elders. Following her mother-in-law’s advice, Ruth approached Boaz at night and asked him to take her “under [his] wing” as her redeeming relative (Ruth 3:9). In effect, she asked Boaz to marry her by alerting him of his responsibility to give her and her deceased husband an heir. She was likely unaware that there was a closer male relative.
Boaz informed Ruth that another man had the first right of refusal to become her husband (3:12). If he declined, however, Boaz would be able to marry her (3:13). It was this circumstance that prompted Boaz to approach the elders at the gate.
The Law of the Sojourner
Ruth’s situation was complicated by the fact that she was from Moab (Ruth 1:4). Her status as a sojourner, or foreigner, gave her privileges such as the right to glean fields, as long as she followed the Law (Lev. 19:10).
Yet the Law also declared that no Moabite could “enter the assembly of the LORD … forever” (Deut. 23:3), a consequence of Moabite hostility toward Israel during the wilderness journey (Num. 22–25; see also “Playing with Fire” at Num. 31:15, 16). Moabites were so abhorred that the Israelites were forbidden to “seek their peace [or] their prosperity” (Deut. 23:6).
Ruth had no reason to believe that she would fare well in Israel. Yet she insisted on traveling to Bethlehem with Naomi. She was reaching out to the Hebrews’ God, if He would have her (Ruth 1:16–18). She was surprised when Boaz showed her kindness (2:10). In her behavior in the fields and toward her mother-in-law, Boaz recognized her reverence for the Lord and chose to extend grace to her (2:11, 12).
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Name means: “Strength.”
Home: Bethlehem in Judea (Ruth 1:19).
Family: Relative of Elimelech, Naomi’s late husband; son of Salmon; Ruth’s second husband; father of Obed, the grandfather of David.
Occupation: Wealthy wheat farmer with many hired hands.
Best known for: His kindness, generosity, and fairness toward the widow Ruth, whom he eventually married as her “kinsman-redeemer” (see “The Redeeming Relative” at Lev. 25:25).
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By asking Boaz to take her under his wing, Ruth sought to enter into the first stage of marriage, betrothal. To learn more about the betrothal customs of the Israelites, see “Betrothal” at Luke 1:27.
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Hope for the Humble
Jane Edna Hunter (1881–1971) was born to tenant farmers in South Carolina. Working as a live-in servant, she was taught to read and write by her employer’s daughter. She began formal schooling at age fourteen and completed a nurse training program in her early twenties. She moved with friends to Cleveland, Ohio, where after paying one dollar and twenty-five cents for a meal and a week of rent, she found she had only twenty-five cents left. No one wanted to hire a black nurse, and she discovered firsthand the difficulty of living as a single black woman during the twentieth century.
As Hunter made her way through the world, she relied on God. “A girl alone in a large city must need to know the dangers and pitfalls awaiting her,” Hunter wrote in her autobiography A Nickel and a Prayer. “She must have abiding faith in God’s love and care for his own. I was glad to have had a real Christian faith taught me, for in hours of distress and hunger, he, like a shepherd, had led me on my way.”
Hunter eventually found a job and began raising money to help other women, asking a few friends to join her in saving five cents per week and praying for resources to start an agency to assist women moving to Cleveland to look for work. She founded what became the Phillis Wheatley Association and built interracial partnerships. While leading the charity she graduated from law school and passed the Ohio bar exam. Her organization’s model of offering lodging, job training, and employment assistance has been followed by other organizations nationwide, and the Phillis Wheatley Association still benefits Cleveland residents today.
Hunter named her organization after a black woman born in 1753 in what is now the nation of Senegal in West Africa. Kidnapped at age seven or eight, Phillis Wheatley was transported to America aboard the slave ship Phillis, the origin of her slave name. She took her surname from the wealthy Boston family who purchased her. The Wheatleys gave her an education in English, Latin, geography, history, the Bible, and more, and her skill as a student and poet won her international renown.
Wheatley wrote eloquently on topics of Christian faith, American independence, and broader poetic themes. Incredulous whites forced her to defend her literary skills in court in 1772 before examiners who included John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in London the next year, making her the first African American woman to publish a book. George Washington invited her to his home in March 1776 to thank her for a poem she had written in his honor. Wheatley was legally freed from slavery in 1778 in accordance with her master’s will but was forced to take work as a scullery maid at a boarding house when her husband was jailed as a debtor in 1784. She and her infant son died in poverty within hours of each other late that year.
Jane Edna Hunter sought to imitate this bold pioneer of progress—driven, accomplished, and persevering despite constant setbacks and struggles—in order to benefit other African American women. “Faith in God and hope for the future were the only assets I had,” wrote Hunter. Yet despite her dire material circumstances, Hunter rose to become a beacon of hope. By the end of her life, she held honorary degrees from four universities and had served on the board of directors and as a vice president of the NAACP. What began with one nickel each week became hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of her lifetime. Hunter’s humility, self-sacrifice, and compassion did not result in any grand renown, but they did accomplish a lasting legacy. Her name may be known by few, but her works continue to benefit many.
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More: Ruth is one of four women mentioned in Jesus’ family tree. See “The Women in Jesus’ Genealogy” at Matt. 1:3–6.
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Naomi’s bitter years ended in joy when her daughter-in-law gave birth to Obed. Naomi became a nurse to the infant, a function taken on by many older women in ancient Hebrew society. Some family nurses were highly honored and served over multiple generations (for example, Gen. 24:59; 35:8). For more on the role of nurses in Scripture, see the entry for “Nurse” in the Jobs and Occupations index.
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