Ruth

Etymology

Possibly from 'reut' (רֵעוּת), meaning friendship or companionship. Some scholars connect it to a Moabite word for 'refreshment' or 'comfort.' The meaning suits her perfectly — she was the companion who would not leave.

Who they were

Ruth was a Moabite — a foreigner from a nation historically hostile to Israel. She married Naomi's son Mahlon, and when he died, Ruth had every reason to return to her own people. Naomi urged her to go. Ruth's response is one of the most beautiful declarations of loyalty in all literature: 'Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.' She chose poverty in a foreign land with a grieving mother-in-law over comfort at home. In Bethlehem, she gleaned in the fields — the ancient safety net for the destitute — and came to the attention of Boaz. The threshing-floor scene (Ruth 3) is one of the Bible's most delicately written passages: Ruth went to Boaz at night, lay at his feet, and said, 'Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.' Boaz honoured her, navigated the legal process, and married her. Their son Obed became the grandfather of King David. Matthew's genealogy of Jesus includes Ruth — a Moabite outsider — in the direct line of the Messiah. The book of Ruth is only four chapters long. It contains no miracles, no divine speech, no prophetic oracle. It is about ordinary faithfulness — choosing loyalty over convenience, showing kindness when nothing compels it — and it argues that such faithfulness is the raw material from which God builds kingdoms.

Family

Children

Obed

Character qualities

• Radical loyalty
• Courage to leave everything familiar
• Willingness to work in humiliating conditions
• Trust in a foreign God
• Initiative at the threshing floor

Key verse

Ruth 1:16-17

Where they appear

Themes

Variants & related forms

Rut · Ruthe

Related names