12. The Daughter Who Honored Her Mother

(Book of Ruth)

Far away in the strange land of Moab a poor widow started to return to her own home in the land of Israel. Ruth and Orpah, her two daughters-in-law, the wives of her sons who had just died, wished to go with her, for they could not think of the poor, old, sad mother returning all by herself on that long journey. But after they had gone a little way, the old mother kissed them and said, “Go back to your home and native land!” So Orpah kissed her good-bye and returned, but Ruth clung to her mother-in-law and said: “Entreat me not to leave thee and return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. Nothing but death shall part thee and me.” Ruth knew that where Naomi was going she would be poor, and that they would have to work hard, but she loved this old mother too much to leave her. Soon they saw the hills and then the houses of Bethlehem, Naomi’s home. They settled down in that little town, but were so poor they did not know how to get even food enough to eat. The time of year had come when the farmers were beginning to cut the barley—the harvest-time. It was the custom in that land to allow poor people to go into the fields and gather up the loose ears of barley that were left by the reapers; and Ruth went to glean a little food for herself and her mother. She happened to go into the field of a rich man named Boaz. By and by when Boaz came to see how the reapers were getting on, he saw Ruth gleaning, and asked his reapers who she was. They told him that she was Naomi’s daughter-in-law, just come from Moab. Then Boaz called her to him and told her that she was welcome to glean in his fields all through the harvest. He said: “I have heard all about your goodness to Naomi. May you be fully rewarded by Jehovah, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” At dinnertime Boaz told her to sit down with the reapers, who gave her food and drink. She ate all she wished, and still she had some left, which in the evening she took home with her, with the barley she had gleaned, to Naomi. At the end of the barley harvest, this great and good rich man, Boaz, fell in love with Ruth, and she became his wife. The old mother, Naomi, went to live with them in their large and beautiful house, and she never was in want again. When a little son came to them, Ruth called his name Obed, and when he grew to be an old man, he was the grandfather of King David. So Ruth, the gleaner, who was kind and loyal to her mother-in-law, became the great-grandmother of the greatest King of Israel.

“ENTREAT ME NOT TO LEAVE THEE”