A guide to Ruth

Who wrote Ruth, and when?

Unnamed; tradition names Samuel. Events in the time of the judges, about 1100 BC; written during or after David’s reign.

Ruth does not name its author. Jewish tradition credits it to Samuel, though the book ends with a family tree that reaches David, and Samuel died before David became king, so at least that ending would come from a later hand. The story is set in the time of the judges, around 1100 BC, and the book was most likely written during or after David's reign, when readers would want to know where the king's family came from. Some scholars date it later still, after the exile, on the basis of its language and its interest in a foreign wife. The date does not change the story. It is a short, carefully written book, and it has been read at the Jewish festival of Pentecost for centuries.

Who was Ruth written to?

Israel during the monarchy, showing where David’s family came from and what covenant faithfulness looks like.

Ruth was first read by Israelites under the monarchy, and its ending makes clear why. David's great-grandmother was a Moabite, a woman from a nation that Deuteronomy 23 treats with suspicion. The book explains how that came to be and shows that Ruth's loyalty to Naomi and to the LORD made her a true daughter of Israel. Beyond the royal family, the book spoke to ordinary Israelites: widows with no one to provide for them, farmers deciding whether to leave the corners of their fields for the poor as the law required, and families wondering whether God cared about their small lives. It showed them that the same God who ruled the nation was at work in one household in Bethlehem.

What was happening at the time?

Set during a famine in the period of the judges, Ruth follows Naomi, who loses husband and sons in Moab, and Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law who refuses to leave her. Back in Bethlehem, Boaz acts as kinsman-redeemer. The book ends with a family tree that reaches David.

Why was Ruth written?

To show God’s quiet providence working through ordinary faithfulness, and to welcome the outsider into his people.

Ruth was written to show God's quiet care at work through ordinary people keeping their promises. There are no miracles in the book, only a famine, a journey, a field at harvest time and a marriage. Yet the story is shaped from emptiness to fullness: Naomi loses her husband and sons and comes home bitter, and by the end she holds a grandson in her arms. The book wants readers to practise the kind of loyal love, called hesed in Hebrew, that Ruth shows Naomi and Boaz shows Ruth, and to trust that God is working even when he seems silent. In the wider story of the Bible, Ruth links the chaos of the judges to the coming of David, and Matthew 1 names her among the ancestors of Jesus.

How to read Ruth today

Ruth is only four chapters, so read it in one sitting, like the short story it is. Watch for Ruth's promise to Naomi in chapter 1, which is one of the most loved passages in the Old Testament, and for the way Boaz goes beyond what the law required in chapters 2 and 3. Notice who is called blessed and who does the blessing. The scene at the threshing floor in chapter 3 has puzzled readers; do not force it to mean more than the text says. Look up the term kinsman-redeemer if it is new to you, since it explains what Boaz does in chapter 4. As you read, pray for someone who is grieving or far from home, and ask God to show you where he is quietly at work around you.

The key verse in Ruth

But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.

Passages worth knowing in Ruth

• Ruth 1:16-17

  Ruth’s vow

  Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

• Ruth 2

  Gleaning in Boaz’s field

  The law’s provision for the poor becomes God’s provision for Ruth.

• Ruth 3

  The threshing floor

  Ruth asks Boaz to redeem; he pledges to.

• Ruth 4

  Redemption and a son

  Obed, grandfather of David, is born.

The main themes of Ruth

• Loyal love (hesed)
• The kinsman-redeemer
• Providence
• Outsiders welcomed
• From emptiness to fullness

An outline of Ruth