NOTES ON RUTH

Ruth 1-4 Nine times God's name is used in a prayer asking for a blessing on a major character in the 

book. The text then shows how each of these prayers was answered. (Kaiser)

 

Ruth 1:1 Naomi and her husband did not have to leave Bethlehem to survive, as evidenced by the 

many people there who still recognized her. Deuteronomy 23:3-4 teaches that Jews were not to have 

anything to do with Moabites since Moab would not give bread and water to Jews coming out of Egypt 

and even hired Balaam to curse the Israelites. (George L. Miller, who is also responsible for some of 

the other comments below)

 

Ruth 1:2 The verb in verse 1 denotes a brief stay while “remain” in verse 2 denotes a settling there.

Implications? 

Mahlon = "sickly" and Chilion = "pining away."

 

Ruth 1:4 Oprah Winfrey was named Orpah but someone transposed two letters accidentally.

 

Ruth 1:6 The famine had probably been over for some time, and it was only the deaths that decided 

her to return. 

 

Ruth 1:8 It has been suggested that the primary motive for Naomi's actions was to hide the fact that 

her sons had married Moabites. But in any case, it does not reflect well on Naomi that she wanted her 

daughters-in-law to remain in a pagan nation instead of coming to Israel.

Ruth 1:16-17 This reflects the proper order of events in v. 16. First a person must become a Jew 

("your people") and then they can partake of all religious ceremonies ("your God").

In S. Korean culture these verses are used during the wedding ceremony as part of the vows to control 

the bride by her mother-in-law.

 

Ruth 1:21 She blames God for her misfortunes rather than her own sinful actions. Similar to the 

Prodigal Son story.  Miller asks, “How long would that prodigal son have stayed away from home if he 

had kept on winning at the slot machines, and the lottery and his stocks kept going up?”

 

Ruth 2:2This verse indicates that at least Naomi had taught Ruth about the Mosaic laws regarding the 

practice of gleaning.

 

Ruth 3:4 Why was it done at night? Perhaps so that Ruth would not publicly embarrass Boaz 

if he had refused to be the kinsman-redeemer.

 

Ruth 4:5 A suggestion as a motive for the refusal was that the man thought the family was 

cursed due to all their untimely deaths and he didn't want any part of it. This is reminiscent of the story 

of Judah story with the deaths of of the sons who had married Tamar.

 

Ruth 4:14 Naomi is a picture of Israel out of fellowship with God until the son is born.