Ruth 3:1 - 4:17

Please consider your sponsorship or support of The Text This Week.

• Reading the Text:
  • NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
  • The Bible Gateway: NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
  • The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Hebrew text with concordance, commentaries. Chapter 4.
  • The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary, exposition and sermons. Chapter 4.
• Historical References, Commentary and Comparative Texts:
  • Rashi's Commentary, c. 1075. chabad.org.
  • From the Geneva Notes. Chapter 4.
  • From Matthew Henry's Commentary. Chapter 4.
    • "The married state should be a rest, as much as any thing upon earth can be so, as it ought to fix the affections and form a connexion for life. Therefore it should be engaged in with great seriousness, with earnest prayers for direction, for the blessing of God, and with regard to his precepts."
  • From Wesley's Notes. Chapter 4.
    • "Took Ruth - Which he might do, though she was a Moabite, because the prohibition against marrying such, is to be restrained to those who continue Heathens; whereas Ruth was a sincere proselyte and convert to the God of Israel. Thus he that forsakes all for Christ, shall find more than all with him."
  • From the Commentary on the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871). Chapter 4.
    • "The winnowing process is performed by throwing up the grain, after being trodden down, against the wind with a shovel. The threshing-floor, which was commonly on the harvest-field, was carefully leveled with a large cylindric roller and consolidated with chalk, that weeds might not spring up, and that it might not chop with drought. The farmer usually remained all night in harvest-time on the threshing-floor, not only for the protection of his valuable grain, but for the winnowing. That operation was performed in the evening to catch the breezes which blow after the close of a hot day, and which continue for the most part of the night. This duty at so important a season the master undertakes himself; and, accordingly, in the simplicity of ancient manners, Boaz, a person of considerable wealth and high rank, laid himself down to sleep on the barn floor, at the end of the heap of barley he had been winnowing."
• Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
  • Commentary, Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17, James Boyce, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.
    • "Of course, not all stories that begin with profound misery end in great joy. Even when they do, the later joy does not always cancel out the prior grief—at least not completely, nor, ever, easily."
  • "Risk and Restoration," Kate Huey, Weekly Seeds, i.UCC.org, 2009.
    • "Where is God in this story? Where is God in stories that do not have happy endings?"
  • Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17, Pentecost 23, Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in Australia.
    • "Righteousness is different to Law in that the actions are not necessarily decreed, but in light of God's love are right for the situation. Some people might refer to this as situational ethics, but the last clause is the controlling factor."
  • Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17, Pentecost 23, 2006, The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Howard Wallace Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson, Lorraine Parkinson, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.
  • "Bitterness and Friendship: A Feminist Exegesis of the Book of Ruth," Joseph W. Blotz, Currents in Theology and Mission, 2005.
    • "While the Book of Ruth is notable for the active women it portrays, it must be remembered that it does not break from the tradition of patriarchy, which, both then and now, often oppresses and denigrates the bodies and spirits of women and often holds men captive in the traditional societal roles as well."
  • Megillat RUTH: Hesed and Hutzpah, A Literary Approach, study guide by Noam Zion, Tichon Program, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem, 2005.
    • "Is this love? sex? seduction? Blackmail? a discrete religiously-motivated discussion about accepting the legal responsibilities of a redeemer? The negotiation of a shiduch without the good offices of one’s mother or father or guardian?"
  • "Holy Economics: A Rhythm of Worthy Work and Reflective Rest," by Arthur Waskow in Sojourners.
    • "Boaz knew that even this despised foreigner was entitled to a decent job at decent pay. And the work she did was not menial or undignified; it was exactly the kind of work that most people did in the world of ancient Israel."
  • "Ruth and the Sense of Self: Midrash and Difference," Mira Morgenstern, Judaism, 1999.
    • "...far from being a book that merely reflects a calm and settled philosophy of life, the Book of Ruth is in fact filled with unsettling questions...Ruth focuses on the sustained philosophical search by its protagonist for a coherent understanding of selfhood that can include both self-affirmation and other-directed giving."
• Articles & Background:
  • "Engaging Biblical Women," Lillian Klein, Bible and Interpretation, 2003.
    • "Women are shown to use their sexuality as a manipulative tool to various effects (Ruth 3.7; Judges 16); in general, males condemn female sexuality."
  • "The Determination of Social Identity in the Story of Ruth," Victor H. Matthews, Biblical Theology Bulletin, 2006.
    • "...the issue raised here is the manner in which displaced individuals are able to integrate of reintegrate themselves into a local community. The process, as exemplified in the story of Ruth and Naomi, demonstrates the movement from a liminal social condition to a liminal spatial placement to a defined social condition within an established social space."
• ATLASerials is now available on multiple platforms.  Direct links are currently available for ATLASerials via EBSCOhost and ATLA platforms when you are subscribed and logged in to ATLAS on one of these platforms. If you are unsure about which link to choose, please contact support@atla.com.
  • Beattie, D.R.G., "The Book of Ruth as Evidence for Isarelite Legal Practice," Vetus Testamentum, 1974.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Beattie, Derek R.G., "Kethibh and qere in Ruth 4:5," Vetus Testamentum, 1971.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Bertman, Stephen, "Symmetrical Design in the Book of Ruth," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1965.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Blotz, Joseph W., "Bitterness and Friendship: A Feminist Exegesis of the Book of Ruth," Currents in Theology and Mission, 2005.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Box, Johanna W.H., "Out of the Shadows: Genesis 38, Judges 4:17-22, Ruth 3," Semeia, 1988.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Brenner, Athalya, "Female Social Behavior: Two Descriptive Patterns within the 'Birth of the Hero' Paradigm," Vetus Testamentum, 1986.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Britt, Brian, "Unexpected Attachments: A Literary Approach to the Term HSD in the Hebrew Bible," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2003.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Davies, Eryl W., "Ruth IV 5 and the Duties of the GO'EL," Vetus Testamentum, 1983.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Fewell, Danna Nolan, and David M. Gunn, "Boaz, Pillar of Society: Measures of Worth in the Book of Ruth," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1989.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Gow, Murray D., "Ruth quoque--a coquette, Ruth 4:5," Tyndale Bulletin, 1990.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Hubbard, Robert L., "Ruth IV 17: A New Solution," Vetus Testamentum, 1988.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Irwin, Brian P., "Removing Ruth: tiqqune sopherim in Ruth 3:3-4?" Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2008.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Manor, Dale W., "A Brief History of Levirate Marriage As It Relates to the Bible," Restoration Quarterly, 1984.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Martin, Michael W., "Betrothal Journey Narratives," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2008.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Moore, Michael S., "Ruth the Moabite and the Blessing of Foreigners," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 1998.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Thompson, Thomas and Dorothy, "Some Legal Problems in the Book of Ruth," Vetus Testamentum, 1968.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Tucker, Gene M., "Witnesses and 'Dates' in Israelite Contracts," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 1966.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Van Wijk-Bos, Johanna W.H., "Out of the Shadows: Genesis 38, Judges 4:17-22, Ruth 3," Semeia, 1988.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Weisberg, Dvora E., "The Widow of Our Discontent: Levirate Marriage in the Bible and Ancient Israel," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2004.
      ATLAS via ATLA Image Browse - ATLAS via ATLA PDF
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
• Reviews:
• Sermons:
  • "The Word We Don't Mention," Samuel Wells, Faith and Leadership, 2009.
  • "The Story of Ruth: Moments of Loss and Faith," Sr. Joan Chittister, 30 Good Minutes, Chicago Sunday Evening Club, 2001.
  • "Loyalty, Lovingkindness, Mercy and Redemption," the Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada.
• With Children:
  • "Ruth," Illustrating the Story (lessons, children's sermons), coloring pages, activity sheets, crafts, children's songs. MSSS Crafts.
• Drama:
• Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
  • Images for this week's readings, Pitts Theology Library Digital Image Archive.
  • Clip Art: Ruth, Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld woodcuts, World Mission Collection, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
• Hymns and Music:
• Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
  • Ruth
• Movies scenes with the following themes, listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
  • Love
  • Covenant
  • Justice/Injustice
• Study Links and Resources for the Book of Ruth