The story of Ruth is included in the Bible for a multitude of reasons, but chief among them is to show the lineage of David. Given that this lineage is at the end of the book of Ruth indicates the story may have been handed down by David's family but not put on paper till many years later.Many look at this story as a Biblical romance that illustrates that true love can find you anywhere, but that is a modern spin on the story and honestly I do not think the original readers would have looked at it this way.
I think the real reason is that David, a Jewish King, is known to have a Moabitess (Ruth) in his lineage and how that came about needs to be explained. The issue is mixed marriage between a Jewish man and Moabite woman.
The story chronicles Naomi, a Jewish woman, who's husband if from Bethlehem as they head into Moab to stay a while. While there, Noami has two sons and those two sons marry Moabite women. All the men in the story die and leave Naomi without resource and the legacy of the father is ultimately up in the air. While the other daughter in law leaves - Ruth stays with Naomi. Ruth in effect swears off her former nation and decides to become a part of Naomi's.
In the course of events, Ruth, while gleaning in the fields, catches the attention of Boaz who makes his workers drop extra behind so Ruth can glean more. Ruth tells Naomi and Naomi begins to seek for a way to get the two together. I involves going into the threshing floor while Boaz is sleeping and uncovering his feet and laying at them till he wakes up. She then makes her request and Boaz acts to take Ruth to be his wife. This involves convincing a closer kinsman to Ruth to give up his claim and let Boaz have it. The end result is Ruth and Boaz married and a baby that becomes part of the lineage of David.
1. The mixed marriage issue seems to not matter here. It kind of illustrates what I am talking about with women of this era being trading cards. When Ruth marries an Israelite male, which she does in Ruth 1:4, she technically (because of her virginity in this first marriage) stops being a Moabitess and becomes an Israelite, even though she is called a Moabitess in the rest of the story. Through marriage she has changed nationality.
2. Indicates the contract angle of marriage as well. The fact is when Naomi's son's die, the closer kinsman would not only been able to marry Ruth but in some senses obligated to to raise up a son for the inheritance. Ruth and Naomi don't press this angle because they perhaps see more of an advantage to themselves in Boaz. Boaz basically has to buy Ruth's contract for himself.
3. The threshing floor incident is actually a calculated risk on the part of Naomi that puts Ruth in danger. Had Boaz decided to expose her, she would have been treated like a harlot from that point on. Instead, I think Naomi is playing on the fact that Boaz is a man with a reputation of his own and would handle the situation justly. She may be also hoping that the two have developed feelings for each other. The fact remains though this is a couple of women trying to better their situation in life through marriage.
4. Age is an issue, Ruth might have been between 25-28 years old but based on Boaz's own words to her, he must have been quite a bit older than her (40s-50s). How old we do not know. For us in the western world having such a discrepancy in ages would be somewhat odd, But Boaz seems pleased because it showed to him that Ruth was a wise woman. In this culture, women were almost always far younger than the men they married.
Romance? Maybe a little, but the fact is everyone is acting on cultural forces and trying to better their own situation. The issue is to get the contract of marriage that is the best situation and then raise up an inheritance and legacy through that union. Both are accomplished and the fact that Ruth and Boaz may have fell for one another might have simply been looked on as a bonus.
Next: Elkenah and His Two Wives
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