NAOMI, RUTH & ORPAH: DEVOTED WIDOW

We first meet Naomi at home with her husband and two sons. They live in Bethlehem (literally “house of bread”) in Judah, and the community is struggling through a horrible famine. 🚫🥖 There's no bread in the house of bread.

Due to the overwhelming lack of food, resources, and prospects, the Israelite family migrates to the region of Moab.

Sidenote: Moab was located roughly 60 miles southeast of Bethlehem, across the Dead Sea (now in west-central Jordan). Moab was the name of Lot’s son via his firstborn daughter. 🤮 Gross, I know. Although, ethnically, the Moabites came from the same stock as Israelites, Naomi’s family was considered foreign. They were refugees from the famine. 

Sadly, not long after they move to Moab, Naomi's husband dies. 😞

As a single mother and foreigner, she finishes raising her sons who grow up and marry Moabite women: Orpah and Ruth. Unfortunately, before either of the couples have children, Naomi's sons die.

The move to Moab was undertaken to preserve their lives; however, within ten years, Naomi buries her husband and both of her sons. Tragic.

Stripped of everything that gives her life meaning and security, Naomi is socially vulnerable and emotionally homesick—she YEARNS for her family. Her friends. Her people.

RETURNING HOME

One day around this time, while working in the fields of Moab, Naomi learns that the LORD has ended the famine in Judah, and she decides right then and there that it's time to return home to Bethlehem. She is determined to make the journey alone.

Since her daughters-in-law are Moabite, Naomi encourages the young women to return home to their families of origin, remarry, and have children of their own. How will the young widows respond?

In one of the most emotionally riveting scenes in the Bible, both Ruth and Orpah refuse to leave Naomi's side. They hug and cry and cry and hug. These three women have been through a lot together, but no matter how hard they try to reason with her, Naomi is not swayed. She sends them on their way (mothers-in-law can be stubborn sometimes).

Sidenote: Did you know Oprah was named after Naomi's daughter-in-law, Orpah? It's true:

"My name had been chosen from the Bible. My Aunt Ida had chosen the name, but nobody really knew how to spell it, so it went down as 'Orpah' on my birth certificate, but people didn't know how to pronounce it, so they put the "P" before the "R" in every place else other than the birth certificate. On the birth certificate it is Orpah, but then it got translated to Oprah, so here we are.'

Oprah Winfrey Interview Academy of Achievement

BACK TO ORPAH & RUTH

Orpah reluctantly obeys Naomi's command and returns to her family in Moab. Often this is interpreted as Orpah’s turning her back on Naomi, but nowhere in the text is her action judged negatively—she’s actually honoring her family by returning to them.

Ruth, however, reacts totally the opposite: She resolutely refuses to leave Naomi’s side, and swears a beautiful oath of loyalty to her mother-in-law:

"Where you go I will go,

and where you lodge I will lodge.

Your people shall be my people,

and your God my God.

Where you die I will die,

and there will I be buried."

Ruth 1:16b-17a, NRSV

It’s obvious Ruth is closer to Naomi than anyone else in her life, and she would much rather stay with her than return to her family of origin. In this way, Ruth is a maverick: She turns her back on her family, her people, her religion. She vows her undying allegiance to a foreign woman with whom she has no legal connection or moral obligation.

Sidenote: You might be familiar with these verses because they are often included in wedding ceremonies, and it might surprise you to realize that the vows were given from one woman to another woman. Back in 1985, during my first year of college, I remember attending a forum where a gay priest shared his conviction that Ruth and Naomi had a romantic relationship with each other. At the time, I wasn’t mature enough to hold a thought I'd been indoctrinated against so I rejected it outright.

That said, the theory about Naomi and Ruth's intimate relationship has stuck around for a long time. If you’d like to research it yourself, you’ll find no lack of resources. It’s not my personal belief that they were romantic with each other, but one can't deny they have a rather uncharacteristically close in-law relationship. Happy to discuss this with you if it’s something that piques your interest.

🎬 And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

When Naomi realizes she’s never going to talk Ruth out of her decision, she yields. Together they leave Moab and make the 7-10 day trek to Bethlehem where their identities are immediately reversed. Now, Naomi is the native, and Ruth is the foreigner.

Husbandless and childless, the two women are vulnerable and unprotected. They are in desperate need so Ruth gets right to work. She heads to a local farm where she’s learned grain is regularly left in the field by reapers so those in need can pick-up the leftovers (a.k.a. gleaning).

As Ruth (the foreigner) gleans, she catches the wealthy land owner Boaz’s eye. Once he learns she's with Naomi, he instructs his people to leave a little extra for her. This concern for her well-being and act of favor foreshadows the union to come.

Once Naomi makes the connection that Ruth is being favored by her kinsman redeemer (a.k.a. close relation), she encourages Ruth to secure Boaz’s affections by seducing him on his threshing floor—which she does. Trust me, uncovering his “feet,” was a little more than simply uncovering his literal feet… if you get my drift. 😉😘💋

MARRY ME?

After their night on the threshing floor, Ruth proposes marriage to Boaz. (It must have been Sadie Hawkins Day!)

Because of his loyalty to family and strict adherence to their religious traditions and local customs, Boaz doesn't immediately accept her proposal. Instead, he does his due diligence to make sure there is no other closer relative who would marry her. Once the coast is clear, Boaz and Ruth are married. And there is much uncovering of feet. 😉

Soon after their marriage, Ruth conceives and bears a son. And in a strange and unexpected turn of events, Boaz and Ruth decide not to name the baby. Instead, they give him to Naomi, and she becomes his nurse. The women in the neighborhood are elated that "God has given Naomi a son" and they name him Obed.

Yes, this is true. Obed is biologically the son of Boaz and Ruth, but he is given to Naomi as her son…which begs the question: Was Ruth a surrogate for Naomi so she could keep her dead husband's family line going? Is this why Naomi encouraged her to seduce Boaz, her kinsman redeemer? Remember, Ruth will do anything for Naomi. Ah, the tangled webs we weave.

✅ If you’re keeping track, you’ll want to note that Boaz is the son of Salmon and Rahab—the former harlot who saved her family from the Israelite invasion of Jericho.

This means Ruth is the biological great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus. She is one of four women mentioned in the Matthew 1genealogy.

You can read more about Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah in the book of Ruth in the Bible. By the way, did you know that the book of Ruth is the ONLY book in the entire Bible named after a foreign woman? Now you know. 😁

Additional Resources:

• Oprah Quote excerpted from the "Oprah Winfrey Interview," Academy of Achievement. January 21, 1991. Archived from the original on January 19, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2008.

• "Ruth: Bible" in the The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women (Online). Jewish Women’s Archive.

• All the Women of the Bible by Edith Deen

• Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Moabite". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Nov. 2007, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Moabite. Accessed 8 March 2023.

• Additional resources available upon request.

Photo Credits:

Photo by Robert Stokoe on Pexels.

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