"For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God."
A short story set in the time of the
Book of Judges , detailing how Ruth, a Moabite widow, finds a new husband.
Tropes
- Babies Ever After: The ending.
- Breather Episode: The previous book had Israel be invaded several times and its people turning wicked. Now it's time for the fluffy love story!
- Chekhov's Gunman: It's only at the end of her story do we find out Ruth's significance; she's David's great-grandmother.
- And thus for Christians, the ancestor of Joseph married to Mary the mother of Jesus.
- Determined Widow: See quote
- Hope Spot: In Judges.
- May-December Romance: Boaz was much older than Ruth, and says as much. This does not deter her.
- Nice Jewish Boy: Boaz, natch. Although he's well older than Ruth, it's implied in the Bible that he didn't ask after women until she showed up working the fields for her kinswoman. Hearing how she's taking care of her mother-in-law Naomi, Boaz sets aside a portion of the best grain for her take home and lets her sit with his table during meals (as a foreign-born, she normally wouldn't have been allowed in those days).
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Ruth, which reads like a domestic drama, is set in the action-packed Crapsack World times of Judges.
- Plucky Girl: Ruth yet again.
- Romantic False Lead: There's another family member of the tribe that's technically more qualified to marry Ruth and carry on the Levirate duties (i.e., first child born belongs to the family line of the dead husband, not to new hubby), but he backs out of the obligation.
- Sacred Hospitality: Boaz going above and beyond the laws of generosity is one of his good points.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Ruth.
- Shipper on Deck: Naomi for Ruth/Boaz—she's even the one who teaches Ruth what to do and say to get Boaz to agree to cementing the 'ship.
- Undying Loyalty: To her mother-in-law, Naomi.
- The Unseen: At no time does God show up or be directly invoked... and yet the whole book is a perfect example of God's covenant with the Hebrew faith.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Why Naomi wanted to send her two daughters away—if they stayed with her they would have been foreigners in Israel.
- You Have Waited Long Enough: Naomi tried to send her two daughters-in-law away to remarry (in Moab), but Ruth would have none of it.
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