Ruth
Ruth is a Moabite woman who marries into an Israelite family that has gone to Moab during a famine, and after her husband's death she follows her widowed mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem. There she gleans in the field of Boaz, a kinsman of her late father-in-law Elimelech, and on Naomi's instruction claims from him the duty of a near kinsman. Boaz buys the parcel of land from Naomi and takes Ruth as his wife. Their son Obed becomes the grandfather of David, and the line is carried into the genealogy of Jesus.
A Moabite daughter-in-law
When Naomi's two sons take wives in Moab, "the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelt there about ten years" (Ru 1:4). After both sons and their father Elimelech die, Naomi rises to return to Judah because she has heard "how that Yahweh had visited his people in giving them bread" (Ru 1:6), and her two daughters-in-law set out with her.
On the road Naomi releases them: "Go, return each of you⁺ to her mother's house: Yahweh deal kindly with you⁺, as you⁺ have dealt with the dead, and with me" (Ru 1:8). Orpah turns back; Ruth stays. "Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stuck to her" (Ru 1:14). Naomi presses her once more — "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her god. You return after your sister-in-law!" (Ru 1:15) — and Ruth answers with the vow that defines her in the book:
"Don't entreat me to leave you, and to return from following after you, for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people, and your God my God; where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried: Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me" (Ru 1:16-17).
Naomi sees that "she was steadfastly minded to go with her" and stops urging her back (Ru 1:18).
Coming to Bethlehem
The two reach Judah together. "All the city was moved about them, and [the women] said, Is this Naomi?" (Ru 1:19). Naomi tells them to call her Mara — bitter — but the chapter closes by naming the season and the daughter-in-law who has come with her: "So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest" (Ru 1:22).
Gleaning in the field of Boaz
Ruth asks Naomi for leave to glean "among the ears of grain after him in whose eyes I will find favor" (Ru 2:2). She goes out, "and by chance she happened on the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech" (Ru 2:3). Boaz himself arrives from Bethlehem and greets his workers with a blessing — "Yahweh be with you⁺. And they answered him, Yahweh bless you" (Ru 2:4) — and asks his foreman, "Whose damsel is this?" (Ru 2:5).
The attendant answers, "It is the Moabite damsel who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab" (Ru 2:6), and reports her request: "Let me glean, I pray you⁺, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came, and has remained standing from morning until now; her sitting now in the house [has only been] for a moment" (Ru 2:7).
Boaz then turns to Ruth himself, telling her not to leave his field but to stay close by his maidens, and assures her of safe passage and water: "have I not charged the young men that they will not touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn" (Ru 2:9). She bows to the ground and asks why he should "take knowledge of me, seeing I am a foreigner" (Ru 2:10). His answer is the first hinge of the book — he has heard "all that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband; and how you have left your father and your mother, and the land of your nativity, and have come to a people who you didn't know before" (Ru 2:11) — and he names the God under whom she has come:
"Yahweh recompense your work, and a full reward be given you of Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you came to take refuge" (Ru 2:12).
At mealtime he calls her over to eat with the reapers and passes her roasted grain (Ru 2:14). After she rises he privately commands his young men to let her glean even among the sheaves and to "pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and don't rebuke her" (Ru 2:15-16). She works through the day until evening and beats out "about an ephah of barley" (Ru 2:17). The chapter closes with Ruth installed for the season: "So she stuck by the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law" (Ru 2:23).
The threshing-floor and the kinsman's duty
Naomi opens the next move: "My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? And now isn't Boaz our kinsman, whose maidens you were with? Look, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing-floor" (Ru 3:1-2). She instructs Ruth to wash, anoint herself, dress, and go down to the threshing-floor — but to stay hidden until Boaz has finished eating and drinking; then to mark the place where he lies, uncover his feet, and lie down: "and he will tell you what you will do" (Ru 3:3-4). Ruth's answer is brief and total: "All that you say I will do" (Ru 3:5).
She does so. Boaz lies down at the end of the heap of grain; she comes softly and uncovers his feet; at midnight he turns and finds a woman lying there (Ru 3:6-8). When he asks who she is, she answers in the language of the law of redemption: "I am Ruth your slave: spread therefore your skirt over your slave; for you are a near kinsman" (Ru 3:9). Boaz blesses her — "you have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as you didn't follow young men, whether poor or rich" — and pledges:
"And now, my daughter, don't be afraid; I will do to you all that you say; for all the city of my people does know that you are a worthy woman" (Ru 3:11).
He warns her of one obstacle: "it is true that I am a near kinsman; nevertheless there is a kinsman nearer than I" (Ru 3:12), and undertakes to settle the matter himself in the morning. Before she leaves he measures out "six [measures] of barley, and laid it on her" so she does not return to her mother-in-law empty-handed (Ru 3:15).
Redemption and marriage
At the gate Boaz presents the case to the nearer kinsman before ten of the city's elders. The man at first agrees to redeem the field of Elimelech; but Boaz adds the condition that "the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you buy from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance" (Ru 4:5). The kinsman declines — "I can't redeem it for myself, or else I will mar my own inheritance" — and yields the right to Boaz with the customary drawing-off of the sandal (Ru 4:6-8).
Boaz then declares the transaction publicly: "You⁺ are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi. Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead will not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place" (Ru 4:9-10). The elders and the people answer with a wedding blessing:
"Yahweh make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, who both built the house of Israel: and do worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem: and let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which Yahweh will give you of this young woman" (Ru 4:11-12).
The marriage and the conception follow at once: "So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he entered her, and Yahweh gave her conception, and she bore a son" (Ru 4:13).
Mother of Obed, ancestor of David — and of Jesus
The women of Bethlehem name the child Obed and tell Naomi that her daughter-in-law "who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him" (Ru 4:15). The book then closes with the genealogy that places Ruth in the Davidic line: "and Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed, and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David" (Ru 4:21-22).
The line is carried forward in the New Testament. Matthew names her in the genealogy of Jesus — "and Salmon begot Boaz from Rahab; and Boaz begot Obed from Ruth; and Obed begot Jesse" (Mt 1:5) — and Luke traces the same descent back through "the [son] of Jesse, the [son] of Obed, the [son] of Boaz, the [son] of Sala, the [son] of Nahshon" (Lu 3:32). The Moabite woman who left her father's land to take refuge under the wings of the God of Israel becomes the great-grandmother of David and a named ancestor of Jesus.