The book of ruth. What's it about?

Question

In my english class we are studying hebre lit and we had to read the book of ruth. i couldnt understand what the story was about and i tried searching for a summary on the net but i couldnt find it. so can anyone explain to me about that confusing story???

Answer 1

Slightly re-worded from an article by Asimov:

Naomi's husband and sons were dead, and she wanted to return to Bethlehem. Her dead son's widow, Ruth, says she's going too... "whither thou goest, I will go" is actually said to her mother in law.

Ruth was written when the Jews were returnng from exile, and anxious to keep their blood unmixed with the Moabite strangers who had settled there during the Exile, and keep their faith pure, too. Intermarriage was forbidden, people who had already married with settlers were compelled to divorce. (Compare them to bigoted whites in the South, and think of the Moabites as black.)

But some people fought that rule and took it as a challenge, and one of them wrote Ruth.

The Jews regarded Moabites as corrupters of Israelite men, according to Numbers. Ruth was a Moabite, so her successful 2nd marriage proved that not only could they marry "outsiders" like her and assimilate them into Judaism, but that great good could come from it, since she was David's great-grandmother.

I'm no Bible scholar, but this story stuck with me. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

Check out these sites for more info on the book of Ruth:
http://bible.gen.nz/ruth/
http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Ruth.html

Answer 3

you can go to this website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Ruth