The story of a Gentile woman, the Great-Grandmother of David

This little book contains the story of a Moabitess who had married the son of a woman of Bethlehem named Noemi, 'beautiful,' who in a time of famine had passed over into Moab. Ruth, on the death of Noemi's husband and two sons, insists on accompanying her on her return to Bethlehem. For this constancy she is rewarded by being married to Booz of the tribe of Jud'a and thus becoming the mother of Obed the father of Isai (Jesse) the father of David. The book opens with the words: "In the days of one of the Judges," and reads like chapters 17-21, the appendix to Judges. It affords us a glimpse of pastoral life among the Hebrews in a time of peace, and it also shows what their marriage customs were.

Date of Ruth

That the story belongs to a very early period is admitted by everyone, but it does not follow necessarily that it was therefore written at the same early date. The arguments, however, for assigning its composition to a post-Exilic date are insufficient. It is true that in Ruth 1:1, the story is presented as having happened in a remote past, but if Samuel wrote the book, as many think, and if the events took place "in the days of the Judges," we should have a sufficiently long interval. Similarly in 4:7, the marriage customs are narrated as archaic, they practically accord with Deuteronomy 25:5-10, but we do not know how long these laws were enforced. Certain affinities with the Books of Samuel should be noted; thus the expression in 1:17, cf. 3:13, frequently occurs in Samuel. God is also spoken of as 'the Almighty,' Shaddai, a term which is confined to the earlier books.

The book was always held in veneration by the Hebrews; for liturgical reasons it is by them placed among the Hagiographa, and thus separated from Judges. But in the Vulgate it follows immediately upon that book. This was also the order assigned to it by Josephus who reckoned it as one with Judges. In a famous passage of the Talmud, Ruth is placed first of all among the Hagiographa, even before Psalms. The Jews read it at Pentecost.

Points of Interest in Ruth

It is possible to refer the famine mentioned in Ruth 1:1, to that which took place during the Midianite invasion which Gedeon repelled, cf. Judges 6:3-4; possibly, too, the retirement of Noemi into Moab may have been due to the Moabite invasion of which we read in Judges 3:12-30. It is of interest to note the connection between David's Moabitic descent through Ruth and the fact that when he himself was in straits he sent his parents to Moab for succor, 1 Samuel 22:3-4. In addition to the references to the marriage customs, we should note the Levirate law, 3:9, 3:12, 4:1-10; the connection between the right to buy the field and the duty of therefore also carrying out the Levirate law is not brought out in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, but cf. Leviticus 25:25. The judgment in the city-gate should be compared with 2 Samuel 15:2 and 19:8. Note also the salutation in 2:4, and the beautiful expression in 2:12.

St. Jerome says in his letter to Paulinus, Ep. liii. 8: "Ruth the Moabitess fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah: 'Send forth, O Lord, the Lamb, the Ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Sion';" and again he says, when writing to Principia, Ep. lxv. 1: "Ruth and Esther and Judith are of such glory as to have given their names to Sacred Volumes."


by
Very Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., S.T.M.
Doctor in Sacred Scripture,
Member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and
late Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Collegio Angelico, Rome.