Daily Bible Verses

The Story of Ruth: Loyalty, Loss, and Redemption

A long time ago, during a time when Israel had no king and everyone did what seemed right in their own eyes, a famine hit the land of Judah. Food was scarce, and life was hard.

In the town of Bethlehem, there lived a man named Elimelech. He had a wife, Naomi, and two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Because of the famine, Elimelech packed up his family and moved them to Moab, a neighboring country. Moabites and Israelites weren't exactly friends, but hunger doesn't care about borders.

There, in Moab, the sons grew up and married Moabite women. Mahlon married Ruth. Chilion married Orpah. For about ten years, life settled. But then tragedy struck. Elimelech died. And not long after, both Mahlon and Chilion died too.

Now Naomi was alone in a foreign land with two daughters-in-law and no sons, no husband, no one to provide for them. She heard that the famine in Judah had ended. The Lord had visited His people and given them food again. So Naomi decided to go home to Bethlehem.

She told Ruth and Orpah, "Go back to your mothers' homes. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with me and with the dead. May the Lord grant that each of you find rest in the home of another husband."

She kissed them, and all three wept. Orpah, after some hesitation, kissed Naomi goodbye and returned to her people and her gods.

But Ruth clung to Naomi.

Naomi said, "Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."

And Ruth answered with words that have echoed for 3,000 years:

Naomi said no more. The two women walked back to Bethlehem together, arriving just as the barley harvest was beginning.

Bethlehem wasn't easy for a widow and a foreigner. Naomi had no husband, no land, no income. So Ruth said, "Let me go to the fields and glean grain behind whoever will let me." Gleaning was the ancient safety net - poor people could follow behind harvesters and pick up the leftover grain the law required landowners to leave.

By what looked like chance, Ruth ended up working in the field of a man named Boaz. Boaz was a relative of Naomi's late husband Elimelech. He was a man of standing, kind and God-fearing.

When Boaz saw Ruth, he noticed she was working hard, quiet, respectful. He told her, "Stay in my field. Don't go to another. I've heard everything you've done for Naomi. May the Lord repay you for your deeds." He even made sure the workers left extra grain for her and invited her to eat with them.

Ruth worked from morning till evening. She brought home a huge amount of barley and told Naomi where she'd been working. Naomi's face lit up when she heard the name Boaz. "He is a close relative, one of our redeemers," she said.

In Israel's law, a "redeemer" was a kinsman who could buy back family land and marry a widow to keep the family name alive. Naomi saw an opening. She told Ruth to wash, put on perfume, dress nicely, and go to Boaz at the threshing floor at night. "Lie at his feet," Naomi said. "He will tell you what to do."

It was bold. It was risky. But it was within custom.

Ruth did it. She waited until Boaz had eaten and was asleep, then quietly lay at his feet. In the middle of the night, Boaz woke up, startled. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Ruth, your servant," she said. "Spread your garment over me, for you are a redeemer."

Boaz was moved. "Blessed be you by the Lord, my daughter. You have shown kindness now greater than the first, in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich." He promised to handle the matter, but there was one problem: there was a kinsman closer than him who had first right to redeem the land.

The next morning, Boaz went to the town gate, where legal matters were settled. He called the closer relative and ten elders as witnesses. He laid out the situation: if he wanted to buy Naomi's land, he had to also marry Ruth to preserve the family line.

The man said, "I cannot redeem it, for I would jeopardize my own inheritance. You redeem it." He took off his sandal - the ancient sign of a completed transaction - and gave it to Boaz.

So Boaz announced before everyone: "You are witnesses today that I have acquired all that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired for my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance."

The people blessed them. "May the Lord make the woman coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel."

Boaz married Ruth. They had a son. They named him Obed.

And Obed became the father of Jesse. And Jesse became the father of David.

The little Moabite widow who refused to leave her mother-in-law became the great-grandmother of King David. And centuries later, her name would appear in the genealogy of Jesus.