Fairy Tale Spotlight: Ruth [Book Review]

[I spoil all the milestones of this book.]

Dang! I feel like I just finished with "Judges," and here I am again with another review! What happened? Well, as it turns out, the next book in line was pretty darn short. I hesitate to even call it a book at all. But whatever.

"Ruth" is the eighth book in the "Holy Bible," and it is traditionally believed to have been written by Samuel. It is a whopping four chapters long. Admittedly, I had some difficulty understand what was going on in this one. I did consult some cliff notes after the fact, and I was happy to see that my intuition was pretty spot on. I just doubted myself is all.

I won't get into every, little detail of the story. It focuses almost entirely on a woman named Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. Naomi is sort of like a female Job, insomuch as she has everything taken away from her. Everyone dies and she loses most of what she owns. It gets so bad that she tells her daughter-in-laws to leave her to suffer. She does this out of compassion for them.

Ruth choses to stay with her though while Orphah, the other daughter-in-law, does not. Ruth cannot stand the idea of leaving Naomi to her misery. This outstanding compassion from Ruth, who is not even an Israelite, is one of the most wonderful moments in the book. It rather dwarfs the rest of it.

Things turn out well for them though. Ruth ends up getting a job under a wealthy man named Boaz as a handmaiden, helping him to harvest his crops. As it turns out, he is a relative of hers, which means they can be married. Yes, things were a little different back then. Under the guidance of Naomi, Ruth submits to him in the hope that he will accept her.

There's only one problem: Boaz is not next in line to inherit the estate. He does however tell the one kinsman who is in line about the situation, and this kinsman takes off his shoe and gives it to Boaz, which is a sign that he is giving up the right. I found that amusing! Ancient traditions are fun to read about sometimes.

Anyways, Boaz and Ruth get married. Naomi is naturally taken out of poverty. The couple have a son named Obed, who later has his own son named Jesse, which ultimately leads to none other than David himself.

"Ruth" is a difficult read because it assumes and involves ancient traditions that are far removed from what we see in this day and age. I still managed to follow it though, although I still checked up on it just to be sure. It's a solid recommendation, but perhaps the King James Version is not such a good idea for this one. Either way, it was a good, very short, book about women and the real reason why they are, at times, truly remarkable.

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