Who wrote Ruth, and what is it about?

Editorial illustration for the book of Ruth

Short answer

Ruth was a dedicated daughter-in-law to Naomi, her bereaved mother-in-law. Boaz was the kindly owner of a busy farm and a close relative of Naomi. In this story, there is loss and loyalty, a homecoming, a secret midnight meeting, a public transfer of property, a marriage, and a child.

Who appears in Ruth?

The people and places Ruth refers to most, counted by sense rather than by word, so a name used two ways is not double counted.

Naomi 20 Boaz 18 Ruth 12 Kinsman 7 Moab 6 Elimelech 6 Redeemer 5Glean 5Daughter 5 Barley 5 Husband 4 Field 4 Bethlehem 4 Woman 3

Purpose: To tell the inspiring story of Ruth and to trace the background of King David
Author: Unknown
Date: Records events that occurred around 1100 BC
Setting: The period of the judges, during and immediately after a famine that had struck Bethlehem

Background and context for Ruth

Setting

The events in Ruth took place around 1100 BC, during the period of the judges. Whereas the book of Judges records violent, momentous events, Ruth shows a peaceful, ordinary side of life at the time.

During this period, Israel had few political structures. The average person focused more on tribal and clan ties than on national identity. Most families in Israel depended on their own crops and animals for food and for other necessities. Israel’s hill country was fertile, but the water supply was variable, and a couple years of low rainfall could cause famine.

Summary

When famine came to Bethlehem, Elimelech moved to Moab with his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, who married Moabite women. Elimelech died in Moab, then the young men also died, leaving Naomi destitute. Hearing that the famine in Bethlehem had ended, Naomi decided to return home. Ruth, one of Naomi’s Moabite daughters-in-law, declared her loyalty to Naomi. The two of them set out together and arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the spring barley harvest. To obtain food for the coming year, Ruth went out to glean, beginning in Boaz’s field. When he learned who she was, Boaz instructed his workers to be generous to Ruth.

Hearing of Boaz’s kindness, Naomi sent Ruth to the threshing floor one night to meet him privately. Ruth asked Boaz to act as her family redeemer—which would include marrying her. Boaz knew that a closer relative had the first right to act as family redeemer, but Boaz promised to do so if that man refused. He went to the town gate to arrange the matter, and the other man declined. So Boaz married Ruth, who bore a son named Obed.

Having a grandson guaranteed Naomi’s security in old age and brought back what she thought she had lost forever. Obed became the grandfather of David, Israel’s greatest king. The book of Ruth ends with a genealogy of ten generations, from Perez, the son of Judah, to David.

Authorship and Date

Some biblical scholars have questioned the historicity of Ruth and proposed that it might be fictional. As biblical scholars discover more about ancient history, ancient writing conventions, and everyday life in the ancient Near East, however, we can readily conclude that Ruth and other accounts from Israel’s early periods are firmly grounded in history. We don’t know who wrote Ruth, and archaeologists may never recover direct physical evidence of Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi, but the account reflects its time and place in a way that supports its historicity.

Meaning and Message

God usually works in the ordinary events of everyday life. Miracles do happen, but God regularly accomplishes his purposes and blesses his people through routine occurrences. If we learn faithfulness in the everyday, we are equipped to be faithful when crises come.

Ruth contains a number of spoken blessings. God’s people have the privilege of blessing each other in God’s name. We often help fulfill those blessings, as Naomi and Boaz fulfilled the blessings they gave to Ruth.

Naomi felt abandoned by God; but God had not abandoned Naomi, and by the end of the book Naomi knew that God had restored more to her than she could have dreamed. God is trustworthy in our darkest hours.

Faith in God involves willingness to take risks. Ruth’s committment to follow the God of Naomi was made in the midst of immense uncertainty. Boaz took the risk of faithfulness and generosity, and he was richly rewarded.

The everyday and the ordinary can have breathtaking eternal impact. Ruth’s and Boaz’s daily faithfulness in the rhythms of farming, marriage, childbirth, and parenthood resulted in eternal blessings that have continued to multiply through King David and his descendant Jesus Christ.

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Ruth

RUTH is properly a supplement to the preceding book, to which, in fact, it was appended in the ancient Jewish canon. Although it relates an episode belonging to the time of the Judges, its precise date is unknown. It appears certain, however, that it could not have been written prior to the time of Samuel (see Rut 4:17-22), who is generally supposed to have been its author; and this opinion, in addition to other reasons on which it rests, is confirmed by Rut 4:7, where it is evident that the history was not compiled till long after the transactions recorded. The inspiration and canonical authority of the book is attested by the fact of Ruth's name being inserted by Matthew in the Saviour's genealogy [Mat 1:5].

Commentary text: Tyndale Open Study Notes, from Tyndale Open Resources. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reproduced in full, with typographic corrections. The second section is Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), public domain.

Compiled by Protos: the figures above, drawn from the verses where each one actually appears.

This is the background for Ruth as a whole. The commentary on every verse of all 4 chapters is in Protos, attached to the verse you are reading.

Read Ruth verse by verse in Protos

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