References (16)
who are also counted among the Rephaim, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. [The name of the Emim people is the plural form of the word for terror (Hebr. ). They were a feared people, see also .]
as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God (Yahweh Elohim) has given us."
An Ammonite or Moabite may not enter the assembly of God (Yahweh). Until the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord (Yahweh) forever,
The sons married women from Moab. One was named Orpah [meaning ”gazelle”, derived from the Hebrew word for ”neck” and ”stiff-necked”, she married Chilion] and the other was named Ruth [which means ”friendship”, married Mahlon, see ]. They lived there for about 10 years.
So Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabite, returned from the land of Moab. They came to Bethlehem when the barley harvest started [in the spring, around the month of April.]
[Although wheat was more desirable than barley, barley was an important grain because it was more durable and grew in places too dry for other grains. Its early harvest made it an important part of the food supply while waiting for other crops to mature. The barley harvest is the first harvest of the year. It takes place in April, which means that the bulk of Ruth’s story takes place in early spring.]
One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, ”Let me go out into the harvest field. Perhaps someone will be kind enough (give me grace) and let me pick ears of grain.” [According to Moses’ teaching, landowners were to let the poor, widows and fatherless share in the surplus of the harvest, see ; ; .]
She said, ”Go, my daughter.”
The servant in charge of the reapers replied, ”She is a Moabite woman who returned here with Naomi from the land of Moab.
The Moabite woman Ruth said: ”He also told me to stay close to his workers until the entire harvest is gathered.”
Then Boaz explained [that the situation is complex and there are more commitments]: ”The day you acquire the field from Naomi, you must also acquire [marry] Ruth the Moabite, the wife of our dead relative. [It is then your responsibility to ensure that she has children.] This is so that her deceased husband’s name (honor, memory) will be preserved in the inheritance.”
[The last expression is a quote from Deut. 25:7 which speaks precisely of levirate marriage. Technically, however, there is nothing in this statute that forced either Boaz or the nearest unnamed redeemer to marry Ruth. However, the situation revealed the redeemer’s motives and heart. Again, grace (Heb. chesed) is described. Boaz was prepared to take a step in love, further than the regulations required. The question is whether the nearest redeemer was willing to do so.]
I have also acquired (taken responsibility for) Ruth, the woman from Moab who was married to Machlon. She will be my wife. I am doing this so that her deceased husband’s inheritance will remain in the family, so that his name will be remembered among his relatives and at the gate of his city. You are all here today as witnesses to this.”
[This passage frames the chiasmus in chapters 3-11. It was precisely the marriages to foreign women that he was not to do (; ), and this proved to be his downfall. In recent years, archaeologists have begun to analyze fingerprints on clay shards. In excavations where there are Canaanite temples (including Tell Burna 2022), it has been seen that idols, figurines, masks, and vessels for religious use were made by female potters, while ordinary vessels were made by men. Here, archaeology confirms that foreign women were involved in creating these occult objects.]
And King Solomon loved many foreign women, in addition to (besides) the daughter of Pharaoh [who is excluded, see ] – Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites –
Eliel the Mahavite,
and Jeribai and Joshavya, sons of Elnaam,
and Jitma the Moabite,
Those who conspired against him were Zabad, son of Shimeath the Ammonite, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith the Moabite.
When these things had been accomplished, the leaders came to me and said, "The people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, but are doing according to their abominations (following their ungodly customs and practices) just like the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.
On that day, they read from the Book of Moses to the people. There it was written [] that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be allowed to enter the assembly of God.
At that time I also saw Jewish men who had taken Ashdodite, Ammonite, and Moabite women.
