THE STORY OF RUTH | Jewish Literature

 

        Long ago when judges ruled in Israel, a man named Elimelech from Bethlehem left the country because of famine and moved to the land of Moab. With him were his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. During the time of their residence there, Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons.

        These young men, Mahlon and Chilion, married girld from Moab, Orpah and Ruth. Later, both men died so that Naomi was left alone, without her husband or sons. She decided to return to Israel with her daughters-in-law, "Why don't you return to your parents' home instead of coming with me? And may the Lord reward you for your faithfulness to your husbands and me. And my he bless you with another happy marriage." Then she kissed them, and thy all broke down and cried.

        "No," they said. "We want to go with you to your people."

        But Naomi replied, "It is better for you to return to your own people. Do I have younger sons who could grow up to be your husband? No, my daughters, return to your parents' homes, for I am too old to have a husband. And even if that were possible and I become pregnant tonight, and bore sons, would you wait for them to grow up? No, of course not, my daughters: oh, how I grieve for you that the Lord has punished me in a way that injures you."

        And again they cried together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye ad returned to her childhood home; but Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi.

        "See," Naomi said to her, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; you should do the same."

        But Ruth replied, "Don't make me leave you, fo I want to go wherever you go and to live wherever you live; your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God; I want to die where you die and be buried there. May the Lord do terrible things to me if I allow anything but death to separate us."

        And when Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind and could not be persuaded otherwise, she stopped urging her. So they both came to Bethlehem, and the entire village was stirred by their arrival.

        "Is it really Naomi"? the women asked.

        But she told them, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara, (Naomi means "pleasant," Mara means "bitter.") for Almighty God has dealt me his bitter blows. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home empty; why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has turned his back on me and sent such calamity?"

        Their return from Moab and arrival in Bethlehem was at the beginning of the barley harvest.

        Now Naomi had an in-law in Bethlehem who was a very wealthy man. His name is Boaz.

        One day Ruth said to Naomi, "Perhaps I can go out into the field of some king to glean the free grain behind the reapers."

        And Naomi said, "All right, dear daughter. Go ahead."

        So she did. And as it happened, the field where she found herself belonged to Boaz, the relative of Naomi's husband.

        Boaz arrived from the city while she was there. After exchanging greetings with the reapers he said to his foreman, "Who's that girl over there?"

        And the foreman replied, "It's that girl from the land of Moab who came back with Naomi. She asked me this morning if she could pick the grains dropped by the reapers, and she has been at it ever since except for a few minutes' rest over there in the shade."

        Boaz went over and talked to her. "Listen, my child," he said to her. "Stay right behind my women workers. I have warned the young men not to bother you; when you are thirsty, go and help yourself to the water."

        She thanked him warmly. "How can you be so kind to me?" she asked. "You must know I am only a foreigner." "Yes, I know," Boaz replied, "and I also know about all the love and kindness you have shown your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother in your own land and come here to live among strangers. May the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, bless you for it."

        "Oh, than you, sir," she replied. "You are so good to me, and I'm not even one of your workers!"

        At lunchtime Boaz called to her, "Come and eat with us." So she sat with his reapers, and he gave her more food than she could eat. And when she went back to work again, Boaz told his young men to let her glean right among the sheaves without stopping her, and to snap off some heads of barley and drop them on purpose for her to glean and not to make any remarks. So she worked there all day, and in the evening when she had beaten out the barley she had gleaned, it came to a whole bushel! She carried it back into the city and gave it to her mother-in-law, with what was left of her lunch.

        "So much!" Naomi exclaimed. "Where in the world did you glean today? Praise the Lord for whoever was kind to you."

        So Ruth told her mother-in-law all about it and mentioned that the owner of the field was Boaz.

        "Praise the Lord for a man like that! God has continued his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband!" Naomi cried excitedly. "Why, that man is one of our closest relatives!" "Well," Ruth told her, "he said I could come back and stay close behind his reapers until the entire field is harvested."

        "This is wonderful!" Naomi exclaimed. "Do as he has said. Stay with his girls right through the whole harvest; you will be safer there than in any other field."

        So Ruth gleaned with them until the end of the barley harvest, and then the wheat harvest, too.

        One day Naomi said to Ruth. "My dear, isn't it time that I try to find a husband for you and get you happily married again? The man I'm thinking of is Boaz!"

        Naomi told Ruth that Boaz was their nearest male relative, and he was not married. It was a Jewish custom for a widow to marry her husband's closest male relative.

        So one day when Boaz was alone, Ruth went to him. "Who are you?" Boaz asked.

        "It's I, sir - Ruth," she replied. "Make me your wife according to God's law, for you are my close relative."

        "Thank God for a girl like you!" he exclaimed. "I know that you are very kind to Naomi. Don't worry about a thing, my child; I'll handle all the details, for everyone knows what a wonderful person you are. But there is one problem. IT's true that I am a close relative, but there is someone else who is more closely related to you than I am."

        "Give me your shawl," he continued. Then he tied up a bushel and a half of barley as a present for her mother-in-law and laid it on her back. Then she returned to the city.

        "Well, what happened, dear?" Naomi asked her when she arrived home. She told Naomi everything and gave her the barley from Boaz and mentioned his remark that she mustn't go home without a present.

        Then Naomi said, "Just be patient until we hear what happens, for Boaz won't rest until he has followed through on this. He'll settle it today."

        So Boaz went down tot he marketplace and found the relative he had mentioned.

        "Say, come over here," he called to him. "I want to talk to you a minute."

        So they sat down together. Boaz called for ten of the chief men of the village and asked to sit as witnesses.

        Boaz said to his relative, "You know Naomi, who came back to us from Moab. She is selling our brother Elimelech's property. I felt that I should speak to you about it so that you can buy it if you wish. With these respected men as witnesses. If you want it, let me know right away for if you don't take it, I will. You have the first right to purchase it and I am next."

        The man replied. "All right, I'll buy it."

        Then Boaz told him, "Your purchase of the land from Naomi requires your marriage to Ruth, so that she can have children to carry on her husband's name and to inherit the land."

        "Then I can't do it," the man replied. "For her son would become an heir to my property too. You buy it."

        In those days it was the custom in Israel for a man transferring a right of purchase to pull off his sandal and hand it to the other party: this publicly validated the transaction. So, as the man said to Boaz, "You buy it for yourself," he drew off his sandal.

        Then Boaz said to the witnesses and to the crowd standing around, "You have seen that today I have bought all the property of Elimelech. Chilion, and Mahlon from Naomi, and that with it I have purchased Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to by my wife, so that she can have a son to carry on the family name of her husband."

        And all the people standing there and the witnesses replied, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman, who has now come into your home, as fertile as Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nations of Israel descended! May you be a great and successful man in Bethlehem and may the descendants of the Lord will give you form this young woman be as numerous and honorable as those of our ancestor Pharez, the son of Tamar and Judah."

         So Boaz married Ruth, and when he slept with her, the Lord gave her a son.

        And the women of the city said to Naomi, "Bless the Lord who has given you this little grandson; may he be famous in Israel. May he restore your youth and take care of you in your old age; for he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you so much, and who has been kind to your sons."

        Naomi took care of the baby, and the neighbor women said, "Now, at last Naomi has a son again!"

        And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse and grandfather of King David.

Source:

Lapid, Milagros and Serrano, Josephine. English Communicaiton Arts and Skills through Afro-Asian Literature, 6th edition. Phoenix Publishing House Inc.