In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back each of you to your mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband." Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people." But Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me." Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
So she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
Ruth’s story begins typically enough: a famine grips the land where Israel is dwelling, forcing a man and his family to flee and sojourn in a foreign land. We should be reminded, of course, that this is the same beginning that compels the movement of Abraham and Jacob. Though the expectation that this may be just another iteration of a patriarchal/matriarchal tale, the similarities end here. This story diverges from its predecessors as soon as it establishes its inheritance. Far from being a story about patriarchy and power with its manipulation, lying, back-stabbing, struggle and wondrous divine interventions, Ruth is quaint and calm in comparison. Intentionally (and perhaps ironically) reversing past dramatic events, Ruth is a good story with all good characters. There is no villain here, only people who, despite the political storm raging around them, take care of each other; who even welcome the stranger into their midst. This is what happens when good people are allowed to do good things.
We should not, however, diminish the importance of context which adds to the idyllic nature of Ruth. The first verse of our reading this week adds to our uneasy feeling that this is just another crazy Old Testament story not only by conjuring other stories that begin with famine, but by reminding us that this story is set within the time of the Judges. In the Christian Old Testament, the book is positioned between Judges and Samuel. If read sequentially, we would have just ended Judges, wherein various charismatic tribal leaders with ever increasing moral dubiousness lead tribes out of oppression through the typical means of miraculous, murderous rampages. The final chapters of this book tell of how a concubine from Bethlehem was raped to death in a town of Benjamin, in a scene eerily similar to the Sodom and Gomorrah tale. She was promptly chopped to pieces and her body parts sent to other tribes in Israel to gather them together in order to avenge her death. This is the end of Judges and we begin Ruth with a return to this famous town.
The first verse also mentions the country of Moab, the people themselves famous for their ignominious origin and resulting uneasy relationship with Israel. Moab finds its conception in Hebrew lore in Genesis 19:30-38, the narrative immediately after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (weird how this tale is remembered twice in the same verse). After Lot and his family escape the unfortunate towns, his daughters make him drunk and sleep with him so they may have children. One of these children is named Moab. The land Moab is where Moses dies and God renews his covenant with Israel before they cross into the Promised Land. Israel later fights Moab early in Judges and assassinates Eglon, their king. In Samuel, David will find refuge in Moab during his flight from Saul.
This context is interesting, but more importantly, it is fraught with intrigue and potential danger for the unfolding story of Ruth. What makes this short book so wonderful is that the writer refuses to take the story in an expected direction. We should have another story of internecine struggle, or an apologetic on the political and social antipathy felt against a group they had been at war with (e.g. Esther); we are set up and then let down. Naomi leaves her homeland to a foreign land, loses her sons, but gains a lifelong friend. There are no venomous words directed at the foreign wives, not even a hint that Naomi’s sons did a questionable thing by marrying women with such questionable family histories. It is not mentioned in this week’s reading, but when Naomi returns to Bethlehem with Ruth, they are greeted with rejoicing from the other women in the town. It seems as if this story is concerned with lives somehow immune to the evils of the world.
I find a lot of comfort in that thought and in the story of Ruth. It is easy to feel overburdened with the weight of the world - climate change, racism, American history, economic systems of wealth and oppression, etc. etc. etc. begin to feel too much. I want to have answers to all the tragedies, I want to rage and call to account the senseless murders that are committed daily, I want to shut down all plants using fossil fuels to make electricity and replace them with negative carbon technology yesterday, I want to get out of the Southeast before it is all underwater, I want to allow refugees to settle in this country...my life story could take many exciting directions, but it is too exhausting and feels useless. I am just one person and all of these problems are just too much. I should take a lesson from the story of Ruth, that my story concerns the people closest to me. I may not be able to change much of the world, but I can start with just one person.