© David Staume 2007

Ruth is one of only two books in the Bible named after women. The author is unknown. The story was written as propaganda to show that King David was descended from a Hebrew-Moabite marriage. If accepted, this would have undermined the vigorous attempts by many priests to 'purify' the nation of foreign wives.

1-2. Naomi returns to Bethlehem after ten years in Moab, where her husband and two sons died. She returns, bitter from the experience, with her daughter-in-law Ruth. Ruth finds work gleaning barley in the field of a kind man, Boaz, who happens to be a relative of Naomi.

3-4. Boaz takes Ruth as his wife. God enables Ruth to conceive a boy, Obed, who becomes father of Jesse, who becomes father of David.

The first book of the Bible without carnage. A relief. God only appears as a 'God of the Gaps' to explain conception.

Back to Judges. Forward to 1 Samuel.