Baby Ruth...Butterfinger

Am I showing my age with that title?

I really didn't know that this book was only 4 pages long.  Talk about a joy to read too!  Nothing too horrible about it either.  Ruth's mother-in-law is widowed and looses both of her sons.  She sends her two daughters-in-law to go back home to their original families.  D-I-L #1 does, but D-I-L #2 (Ruth) stays by her.

Upon returning to Ruth's M-I-L's native land, Ruth goes out to try to get food for them.  She follows behind as others harvest (unless I'm misunderstanding that).  Turns out the guy who's harvest she's been picking up after is a relative/cousin of her M-I-L.  M-I-L hatches a plan that results in Ruth sneaking in and sleeping at his feet (I don't get that bit, but I guess it was a cultural/time period thing).  Dude eventually marries her.

Moral of the story is supposed to be that because Ruth didn't listen to M-I-L and stayed with her and took care of her that she was rewarded with husband #2 who was nice and rich.  So if you behave and sleep at some strange, rich dude's feet he'll apparently marry you.

Don't go running out all at once sleeping at Donald Trump's feet or something crazy, now!

Assignment 8 - The Book of Ruth

Can I have hopes that a book about a woman won't have tons of insults against women?  OK, I won't hold my breath.  Hopefully the book isn't about how we can insult Ruth or I will be quite disappointed.  Let's see what my handy-dandy Bible says about this book:

     "The Book of Ruth is named after the Moabite woman who was joined to the Israelite people by her marriage with the influential Boaz of Bethlehem.
     The book contains a beautiful example of filial piety, pleasing to the Hebrews especially because of its connection with King David, and useful both to Hebrews and to Gentiles.  Its aim is to demonstrate the divine reward for such pity even when practiced by a stranger.  Ruth's piety (Ru 2, 11), her spirit of self-sacrifice, and her moral integrity were favored by God with the gift of faith and an illustrious marriage whereby she became the ancestress of David and of Christ.  In this, the universality of the messianic salvation is foreshadowed.
     In the Greek and Latin canons the book of Ruth is placed just after Judges, to which it is closely related because of the time of its action, and just before Samuel, for which it is an excellent introduction, since it traces the ancestry of the Davidic dynasty.  One might characterize the literary form of this book as dramatic, since about two-thirds of it is in dialogue.  Yet there is every indication that, as tradition has always held, it contains true history.
     There is no certainty about the author of the book.  It was written long after the events had passed (Ru 4, 7), which took place 'in the time of the judges' (Ru 1, 1)."

So this book contains "true history"?  Well thank you for telling me that.  What do the other books contain?  A bunch of violent crap?  The book was written "long after the events had passed"?  And the others weren't?

OK...time for a break before I throw my book...

Have fun with it!