SERIES H --- THE JUDGES --- LESSON 24

RUTH

A NEW HOME IN BETHLEHEM

From Ruth 1

During the time when judges ruled Israel, a famine came upon the land. Searching for food, Elimelech moved his wife Naomi and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, from Bethlehem to the land of Moab. While they were there, Elimelech died, leaving Naomi alone in Moab with her two sons. In time, Mahlon married a Moabite girl named Ruth and Chilion married a Moabite girl named Orpah. With Naomi, they remained in Moab for about ten years. But then both Mahlon and Chilion died, leaving Naomi without sons or a husband. When Naomi heard that the famine in Israel was over and that Adonai had given food to her people again, she started toward the land of Judah with her daughters-in-law. But along the way Naomi began to think about Ruth and Orpah and tried to persuade them to go back to Moab. You should go back to your homeland instead of coming to Bethlehem with me, Naomi insisted. May Adonai bless you, for you have been a blessing to me and my sons. May He give you a new home and new husbands. When Naomi kissed them, they began to cry. But we want to go to live with you and your people, they said. No, you must go home, said Naomi. I have no younger sons for you to marry and even if I married now and had sons, you wouldn’t want to wait for them to grow up. Anyway, I’m too old to get married again. Do you want to stay single all your lives? I feel sorry, my daughters, that you are being hurt because Adonai is punishing me. After they all had wept again, Orpah kissed Naomi goodbye and went back home to Moab. But Ruth clung to Naomi and wouldn’t leave her. Orpah went home to her own people and gods, said Naomi. Why don’t you go with your sister-in-law? Please don’t insist that I leave you, Ruth answered. Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people and your YHVH will be my YHVH. Wherever you die, I want to die and be buried there with you. May Adonai punish me if I let anything but death come between us. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she no longer asked her to go home. Together they went on their way to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town was excited to see them. Naomi, is it really you? They asked. You must not call me Naomi now, she answered. Naomi means ‘Pleasant’ and my life has not been pleasant. It has been bitter; therefore, you should call me Mara instead. Adonai has sent bitter times into my life. I left Bethlehem full, but Adonai has brought me back empty. So why call me Naomi when Adonai has sent so much trouble to me? Naomi had returned to Bethlehem with Ruth her Moabite daughter-in-law at the beginning of barley harvest.

COMMENTARY

DAILY LIFE IN BETHLEHEM

Not everything during the days of the judges was dark and evil. There were some who followed YHVH. One was a young widow named Ruth, from the land of Moab. Ruth chose as her own the YHVH and people of her husband and her Israelite mother-in-law. Like many Israelite towns, Bethlehem was a farming community and most families had to work from sunrise to dark just to feed and clothe themselves. The sons in a family were often responsible for grazing the sheep and goats. After the barley harvest in the spring, the animals fed on stubble left in the fields east of the city. But during the dry fall season, both food and water were hard to find. Shepherds led their flocks high into the hills around Bethlehem to search for leafy branches and streams. The older men worked in fields along the hillsides nearer the city, tending the barley and wheat crops. Since bread was the basic food, the size of the grain harvest determined how well the family would live the following year. Many families raised grapes and figs, and planted lentils, cucumbers, squash, onions and other vegetables to supplement their diet. Often the women joined the men toiling in the fields, but most of a woman’s time was taken in preparing food. She washed and sifted grain then pounded it into flour for bread. After milking, she let sheep’s milk sour into curds for cheese and spent hours rocking bags of goat’s milk into butter. In the evenings women gathered at the village cisterns to draw water for the next day, balancing the earthenware jugs on their heads during the walk home. When sheep shearing time came, the women spun the wool into coarse thread. Weeks of weaving produced a thick durable cloth from which they sewed all the family garments for the next year. Sometimes they decorated the clothes with bright red and yellow dyes from vegetables, berries and tree leaves.