The book of Ruth is my favorite book in the Old Testament. After the depressing book of Judges, we are treated to a delightful story that has much to say about the ancient Israelite culture, the action of YHWH within that culture, and the joys, cares and devotion of individual Israelites.
The ancient book of Ruth is an elegant piece of story-telling. It should be read slowly, with pleasure. Look for the poetry in it, for the rhyme of themes (cloak/wings, bitter/pleasant, servant/wife, blessing & fertility). The story is carried by dialogue, dialogue which gives insight into the various characters. Our narrator, our Storyteller, delivers this story in four parts. Imagine this being told around a campfire at night, each part ending with a clear pause intended to make the listeners beg, "Don't stop! Keep going!"
The story provides the point-of-view of women and it has been suggested that the anonymous Storyteller is a woman herself. (I think this is a reasonable assumption.) We will see numerous places in the story where the Storyteller provides details of interest to women and in some places (such as the birth of a child) the men are ignored altogether. Imagine a circle of young women listening in as the Storyteller describes YHWH's protection of two frightened widows, one of them in search of a new husband.
In 1940, my grandmother, Mary Endsley, asked her father, "How did you meet Mom?" He wrote her a long letter, explaining how, as a young man in the fields of East Texas in the 1880s, he pursued Molly Lively. (That story is
here.) The book of Ruth has some of the flavor of that story -- I can see a young man, Obed, asking how his parents how they met.
Problems and Questions
The book of Ruth is quite old. The writing may date to the time of Samuel or David and the event it describes probably occurred about 1150 BC. According to commentators, there are some occurrences of archaic Hebrew and unusual Hebrew endings. At one time the scroll of Ruth was included among the poetical writings (as part of the Megilloth, within the Ketuvim, the third part of the TaNaKh.) It was traditionally read at the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) which marked the end of the grain harvest.
The book makes no direct claims about God. God is mentioned in dialogue in a few places, named as YHWH, Elohim and Adonai, but our narrator, our Storyteller, speaks of Him only indirectly. Indeed, I think our Storyteller deliberately challenges her listeners as to the role of YHWH in the lives of the main characters. As we work through this book next week, we will look for these hints of God's actions!
Resources and References
As always, my practice is to read through the text from the New International Version (NIV), copied into the blog and italicized in blue. At the head of each blue paragraph of text I place a short title; after the text I place my thoughts or comments in black. I begin this process with my own reactions and thoughts and then supplement these comments with gleanings from a commentary or two. I hope that you, too, read the passages thoughtfully! Feel free to disagree -- or to react in other ways! (I place hyperlinks in pink, created so that one can click on a link and see the linked site open in another window... and go down a rabbit hole if you wish!)
For the book of Ruth, I have found two commentaries helpful.
The BibleProject summary of Ruth is
here. In addition, in the online commentaries provided by
EasyEnglishBible, are two commentaries
here and
here.
There is a story (possibly apocryphal) that Benjamin Franklin read the story of Ruth to French royalty. One version of that story is in a sermon by Ray Stedman
here. Adele Berlin, writing for the Biblical Archaeological Society, has some thoughts on the significance of the book
here.
We will begin this wonderful book in a few days, after finishing Judges! The book of Ruth is a nice way to recover from the brutality of Judges.
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