Ruth and Boaz – PB

Ruth and Boaz

Ruth and BoazBack when judges ruled the land, rather than kings, during a famine, a man named Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, moved from Bethlehem to Moab. After the death of Elimelech his sons married two Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth.  But their husbands died and the two women were childless (Ruth 1:1-6).

Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem without Orpah and Ruth, but Ruth insisted on joining her, saying:

Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee: for wither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God m people shall be my people and thy God my God (Ruth 1:16).

In Bethlehem, Ruth met a man named Boaz (meaning “strength”) who was related to her late father-in-law.  Boaz was a very wealthy man who lived in Bethlehem.  When Naomi returned to Bethlehem with her widowed daughter-in-law Ruth, Ruth went into the fields of Boaz to glean.  Boaz learned that Ruth’s deceased husband was a distant relative of his.

He acted kindly towards her and instructed his farm workers to leave extra sheaves of barley for her to gather.  Ruth had another relative of her late husband who was closer to her than Boaz.  By law, the other relative was obligated to marry Ruth (Duet 25:5-10).  Boaz confronted the other relative with this law and after the relative refused to marry Ruth Boaz agreed to marry her and to buy the estate of her deceased husband (Ruth 4:5).

After they married, Ruth had a son named Obed who became the father of Jesse, who became the father of David so Boaz and Ruth were the great-grandparents of King David. Ruth and Boaz had a son named Obed and he was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, so Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David in the blood line of Jesus Christ.

The story of Ruth and Boaz is in the book of Ruth.

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