Ruth 1

Ruth 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Ruth. Set in the period of the judges, it depicts the family's loss and return home, which set the story of the entire book in motion.

Outline

• Verses 1–5 When a famine strikes, Elimelech, a man of Bethlehem in Judah, goes to Moab with his wife Naomi and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. There Elimelech dies. The two sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth, but about ten years later both sons die.
• Verses 6–14 Hearing that the LORD has given his people bread, Naomi sets out for her homeland. She repeatedly urges her two daughters-in-law to return to their own families. Orpah kisses her mother-in-law and departs, but Ruth stays with Naomi.
• Verses 15–18 Ruth vows to take Naomi's people and Naomi's God as her own. Naomi no longer tries to dissuade her.
• Verses 19–22 The two women arrive in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Naomi asks to be called "Mara," lamenting that she went out full and has come back empty.

Key Verses

• Ruth 1:16 "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God": a confession of faith by a foreign woman, regarded as the central verse of the book.
• Ruth 1:20 "Call me not Naomi, call me Mara": by setting aside a name meaning "pleasant" and asking for one meaning "bitter," Naomi reveals the depth of her loss.

Characters and Places

• Elimelech: Naomi's husband. He dies in Moab.
• Naomi: A woman who loses her husband and two sons and returns to her homeland.
• Mahlon and Chilion: Elimelech's two sons. Chapter 4 reveals that Mahlon was Ruth's husband.
• Orpah: A Moabite daughter-in-law. She returns to her own people.
• Ruth: A Moabite daughter-in-law. She follows Naomi.
• Bethlehem: A town of Judah and the family's hometown.
• Moab: The foreign land where the family stayed to escape the famine.

Points for Reflection

• The text does not evaluate the family's move to Moab or explain the sons' deaths. Some sermons and Jewish traditions read these events as the consequence of turning away from faith, but this is an interpretation brought to the text.
• Naomi's words (verses 13, 20–21) are read in two ways. Some interpret them as a complaint against God; others see them as a lament in which she honestly pours out her suffering before God.
• Readers often reflect on the significance of the foreigner Ruth's acceptance in light of the regulation in Deuteronomy 23 that bars Moabites from entering the congregation.
• Ruth is named in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 (Matthew 1:5), and at the end of the Book of Ruth she is identified as the great-grandmother of David.

In the Korean Church

Because she served her mother-in-law to the end, Ruth is frequently presented in sermons and Sunday school as the model of a hyobu (孝婦), a daughter-in-law devoted to her parents-in-law. Ruth 1:16 is widely cited in teaching on making a decisive commitment of faith.