Ruth

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• Born: c. 1200 to 1000 B.C.
• Birthplace: Moab
• Died: c. 1200 to 1000 B.C.
• Best Known As: Heroine of the biblical book named for her

The short biblical book of Ruth is about a foreigner who, out of loyalty to her mother-in-law, adopts the Hebrew culture as her own and becomes an ancestor of Israel's most famous king. The story begins with a woman named Naomi immigrating eastward from the region of Judea to the land of Moab with her husband, Elimelech. He dies there and so do their two sons, who have married Moabite women. Before heading home, Naomi urges her daughters-in-law to return to their families. One of them, Ruth, refuses, declaring faithfulness to Naomi despite the hardships that await two widows in Judea. Once there, through obedience to Naomi and her own hard work as a field gleaner, Ruth gains security for both of them by persuading Boaz, Naomi's relative, to marry her and care for them both. Their son, Obed, fathers Jesse, who in turn fathers David, the famous young giant slayer and eventual king of Israel.

Ruth professes her loyalty to Naomi in Chapter 1, verse 16: "Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God"... The Book of Ruth is traditionally read on the Jewish holiday of Shauvot... In Jewish bibles, Ruth is in a section of "Writings" that starts with Psalms and Proverbs. In the Old Testament section of Christian bibles it comes earlier, after Joshua and Judges. Most scholars believe it was written between 950 and 700 B.C.

The central character in the Book of Ruth. A Moabitess, she married one of the sons of Elimelech and Naomi of Bethlehem in the course of that Judahite family's sojourn in Moab. When Naomi decided after the death of her husband and her sons to return to Bethlehem, Ruth insisted on accompanying her and adopting her God and her people as her own. Exercising the right of the poor to gather the grain which falls to the ground in the course of the harvest (Lev 19:9-10; 23:22), she met Boaz, the owner of the field in which she was gleaning. He married her, and she bore him a son named Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of King David (Ruth 4:17). Hence she appears also in the NT in Matthew 1:5 as an ancestress of Jesus.

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In the Bible, a Moabite widow who left home with her mother-in-law and went to Bethlehem, where she later married Boaz.

[Hebrew or Moabite Rût.]

The great-grandmother of King David, known for her kindness and faithfulness. Not an Israelite herself, she married an Israelite who had come to her country with his family. Ruth's husband died, and her mother-in-law, Naomi, set out to return to the country of the Israelites. Ruth insisted on accompanying Naomi, saying, “ Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge.” In the country of the Israelites, Ruth married Boaz, a rich relative of her dead husband; Boaz had been attracted to Ruth by her generosity. Her story is told in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament.

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