Writings
רוּת
Ruth
Four chapters about loyalty, gleaning, and a foreign woman who stays.
Hebrew nameRut, meaning ruthChapters4Position5 of 11 in Writings
Read it
Open chapter 1What is in it
A famine, three deaths, and two widows. Ruth is a Moabite with no obligation to Naomi and goes with her anyway, and the rest of the book turns on the gleaning laws of Leviticus, which let her feed them both.
It is read at the feast of Weeks, which is the harvest festival whose instructions contain the gleaning law the story depends on.
If you read one chapter
Ruth 1
The whole book in miniature, and the speech that gives it its reputation.
Passages worth knowing
- Ruth 1:16 to 17Whither thou goest, I will go.
- Ruth 2Gleaning in the corners of the field, as Leviticus 23:22 requires.
- Ruth 3The threshing floor, and a proposal made by a woman.
- Ruth 4:13 to 22The genealogy the whole story has been heading for.
Questions to sit with
- 01
The book depends on a welfare law. What does that say about what laws are for?
- 02
Ruth is a Moabite. Why does the book end by making her a great grandmother of David?