Ruth

The Book of Ruth is a very short book (four chapters) located between Judges and 1 Samuel. It bridges the two stories by centering around the Judge-era character Ruth, the great grandmother of David. Just one problem: Ruth is a Moabite.

The Lord has forbidden exogmy because it leads to apostasy, and yet here we discover that a Moabite is the forebear of the great King David. How is this possible? In a culture that emphasizes the family dynamic so much, how could a story asserts Ruth, a Moabite, is the great grandmother of David?

Rarely does the biblical author name a character if he does not wish to say something about that character. In the book of Ruth we find three women mentioned by name: Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth.

The book of Ruth is a female-centric story and therefore is also a very domestic story. Its core themes are home and household. But Ruth is also a story of alienation. To Israelite society Ruth would initially seem a person of very little importance: a woman, impoverished, widowed, a Moabite. Yet it is she that ultimately is glorified for her fulfillment of the Israelite value of family. Now that there is a congregation that is settled in one place and is devoted to YHWH, it takes an outsider to display the true values that God wishes to see among his people.

The book is set during a famine in the time of the Judges. A Judean named Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion down to Moab, presumably because there if food there.

The first two verses of the book center around Elimelech, but by verse 3 the subject changes to Naomi; we are even told that Elimelech is "the husband of" Naomi. The structure of the sentence puts Naomi as the more powerful subject and her husband as the less powerful object. Because Elimelech is spoken of only in reference to Naomi, clearly it is Naomi, a woman, that is the focus of the story. In addition, when Elimelech dies, the biblical author says that Naomi is "left with two sons," neither of whom appears to take responsibility for the family. Naomi now leads the family.

Mahlon and Chilion both take Moabite wives; which God has warned against because exogamy is frequently linked with apostasy (marrying a foreigner will cause a man to worship his wife's gods instead of the Lord). We are not told who married whom, but we are told the names of their wives: Orpah and Ruth. After ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion die, leaving Naomi without any men in her life, just her Moabite daughters-in-law. And without men, the three of them lack the security that men provide. This is especially a problem during a time of famine. However, Naomi hears that the Lord is providing for his people, so she decides to head to Judah and urges her two daughters-in-law to return to their homes (their feminine homes, no less - each to her "mother's house"). Ruth and Orpah insist on following Naomi back to Bethlehem. Naomi's response expresses the practical view: they should not follow her because she has no sons and will never again have sons. It would be impractical for them to follow her because not one of them is possessed by the requisite male.

Orpah returns home, and Naomi tells Ruth to follow, to go back to her people and her gods. But Ruth has found the Israelites and their God to be too wonderful:

Do not press me to leave you
or turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die -
there I will be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!
(Ruth 1.16-17)

And so Ruth convinces Naomi to take her along.
When they get back to Bethlehem, Naomi tells the women of the town to call her Mara ("Bitter"), for the Lord has dealt harshly with her by taking away all her men.

Flight and return
Flight and return is a common theme in the Bible, with characters like Abraham and then Israel as a whole going down into a place like Egypt and then coming back up. The character leaves his or her homeland due to a famine, enters a foreign land, and after a time returns to the homeland changed in some way. It would be possible to see Naomi this way, having left the promised land for Moab and returning without any males. But another way to look at it is that Naomi leaves with a group of spiritually and physically weak men - Naomi's sons take Moabite wives and she outlives all the men of the family - and returns with a spiritually and physically strong woman, Ruth. The biblical author in this way undermines the traditional male dominance of Israelite life by asserting the strength of women; it is only Naomi and Ruth that return to the promised land, and Ruth is a convert at that.

This is not to say that the story is completely devoid of strong men. Indeed, the biblical author still asserts the importance of a man's presence in the character Boaz, Naomi's rich kinsman on her husband's side. Boaz is a man of the Lord from his introduction. His first words in the story, spoken to his reapers, are, "The Lord be with you." His reapers in turn bless him: "The Lord bless you."

Ruth has asked her mother-in-law to glean in the field, picking up the sheaves of wheat that the reapers missed as per the Deuteronomical law granting this ability to widows, orphans, and aliens. Ruth's hard work - she has been on her feet all day without resting - and her familial relations cause Boaz to protect her, even calling her "my daughter." He advises her to glean only in his field, promises the men will not bother her, and offers her food and water. Ruth is amazed that a foreigner would be treated so well, to which Boaz responds that he knows what she has done for Naomi, and that she has left her family.

Ruth is treated very well that day. She is offered bread and sour wine at mealtime, and Boaz commands the reapers to let her glean from the standing grain and to intentionally drop bunches from the bundles for Ruth to pick up. In all Ruth gathers an ephah of barley - quite a bit.

Boaz is again blessed, this time by Naomi when she is told of all he has done for Ruth. This is the biblical author's way of letting us know that he is a righteous man; everyone is quick to bless him.

Transactions
A frequent topic of this blog has been the sex-marriage economy, in which women are treated as pieces of property in marriage and family matters. This will be discussed a little later as we come to it. Here we will examine another type of transaction that occurs in Ruth. Chapter 2 saw Ruth working to support Naomi. Chapter 3 sees Naomi work to support Ruth. In this exchange for protection, each woman looks out for the other's best interest in an exchange of services. Naomi's aid comes in playing matchmaker between Ruth and Boaz. She commands Ruth to clean herself up and put on nice clothes to go to Boaz on the threshing floor, where he is spending the night. After he has eaten and drunk, she is to "uncover his feet" and lie down, at which point he will instruct her what to do. ["Feet" in biblical parlance is a euphemism for genitals; Naomi seems to be arranging a marriage.]

Ruth does this, but waits until Boaz is asleep. Boaz wakes with a start in the night and demands to know the name of the woman lying at his "feet." Ruth answers, "I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin." The symbolic spreading of a cloak over a woman signifies (for obvious reasons) acquiring her for marriage. However, marriage does not seem to be on Boaz's mind. He refers to her twice as "my daughter" and tells her that there is another man who is closer kin than he. He is willing to get married if the other man does not agree, but Boaz seems to want to follow Mosaic law precisely.

Ruth slips out in the morning before anyone could recognize she spent the night, however platonically, with Boaz. As a parting gift he gives her six measures of barley.

The sex-marriage economy
With the economic transaction of property and Ruth, the story logically shifts its focus to Boaz, a male. Boaz meets the kinsman closer to Ruth at the gate of the city, the area of commerce. He informs the kinsman that Naomi is selling a parcel of land that belonged to Abimelech. As per Deuteronomic law, the land should be redeemed by the closest kin member, who happens to be this kinsman. The next in line after him is Boaz.

The kinsman offers to redeem the property, upon which Boaz informs him that Ruth comes with the property, so that Elimelech's name may be passed down (again a piece Deuteronomic legislation. In this society a man's name is tied to his property, so if there is no brother or son to redeem it, it goes to the man's wife, who keeps the man's name associated with the property and hopefully produces a son who will carry on the family name along with the property.

Boaz's choice of delivery in describing the transaction builds tension by adding value to the deal while simultaneously complicating it. With the addition of Ruth into the equation the kinsman no longer simply considers buying property; now he must consider buying property and taking a wife that will pass on another man's name to their children. The kinsman refuses, claiming it would damage his own inheritance, and so Boaz claims all of Elimelech's property and Ruth, and promises to carry on her dead husband's name.

The witnesses accept the transaction and bless Boaz and Ruth, saying:

"May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you produce children in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem; and, through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah."
(Ruth 4.11-12)

Quite conveniently, all this occurs, as Ruth gives birth to Obed, who will be the father of Jesse, father of David. The biblical author, of course, knows that all this will happen, and uses the invocation of Rachel and Leah, matriarchs of Israel, to assert David's greatness.

And so Ruth and Naomi both receive the protection of a man. But there is still the problem that Obed's mother is a Moabite. The biblical author jury-rigs a reasonable solution: Ruth's son is taken by Naomi, who becomes his nurse, creating a literal and figurative connection between the child and Judah. The neighborhood women authorize the connection by saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." It is not her son, but it does allow Elimelech's name to be passed on. By this method the son has two "parents" that are descended from Judah: Boaz and Naomi.