Ruth

Ruth is a foreign widow who binds herself to her mother-in-law Naomi, takes Naomi’s people and God as her own, and becomes the wife of Boaz and the mother of Obed in the line of Jesse (Ruth 1:16–17; 2:11; Matthew 1:5). The narrative presents Naomi blessing her widowed daughters-in-law that each might find rest in a husband’s house (Ruth 1:9), then urging Ruth to follow her sister-in-law back to her people and her god (Ruth 1:15). Ruth refuses: “where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16), adding an oath that only death will part them (Ruth 1:17). Naomi stops urging her when she sees her determination (Ruth 1:18). The name Ruth is Hebrew; its precise etymology is debated, though it is commonly associated with companionship.

Boaz, introduced as coming from Bethlehem (Ruth 2:4), recognizes what Ruth has done for her mother-in-law and how she left her father, mother, and land of birth for a people she did not know (Ruth 2:11). He blesses her: “May Yahweh repay your work, and a full reward be given to you from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:12), and she answers that he has comforted her and spoken kindly to her (Ruth 2:13). Naomi later directs Ruth to wash, anoint herself, get dressed, and go down to the threshing floor (Ruth 3:3). At the gate the people and elders bless the woman coming into Boaz’s house, praying she may be like Rachel and Leah and be famous in Bethlehem and Ephrathah (Ruth 4:11). Matthew’s genealogy states that Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse (Matthew 1:5).

In Jewish tradition Ruth is commonly read as the model convert who takes refuge under Israel’s God and is welcomed into Israel, and as an ancestress of David’s house. In Christian tradition she is commonly read through Matthew 1:5, where she appears in the genealogy of Jesus, as an example of God’s inclusion of outsiders and of faithful loyalty; some Christian interpreters also treat Boaz as a type of Christ the redeemer, while others stress providence and ordinary covenant faithfulness. These are differences of interpretive emphasis and canonical framing, not of the narrative’s basic content.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.