The Book of Ruth:
The book of Ruth is a poetic and beautiful monomyth that focuses on the journey of a brave young widow, completely committed to her mother in law, as she moves to a different town, faces poverty, learns to glean, falls in love and marries and eventually becomes the great grandmother to King David, sealing her place in the lineage of Jesus. The main themes of the book of Ruth are friendship, family, and God’s plan. Ruth was a servant to her mother in law, doing all she could to make sure Naomi was cared for and properly looked after. She trusted Naomi completely and followed her directions to the letter. Naomi was caring and wanted to make sure she saw her daughter in law cared for in the way Ruth had always been caring to others. She instructed Ruth on how to get Boaz to marry her and how to seal her fate in a wealthy household. The author of Ruth isn’t actually known but some believe it to be Solomon (source). The time of the writing also isn’t clear but it is believed to have been between the years 1021-924 B.C. There are many things we don’t know about the origin, actual date, writing, author of this book, but we can agree there is a simple beauty to the words and the imagery created in this text. This book plays a key role in furthering the line of David and therefore the lineage of Jesus.

The Story of Ruth:
The story of Ruth is one filled with hardships and victories. She, to me, has always been on of the most fascinating people in the entire Biblical text. From the information I have been able to find, Ruth was born before 1300 BC, since that is near the time chapter one of the book of Ruth occurred. (SOURCE) Ruth, a Moabite woman, lost her husband, brother in law, and father in law, so she pledged her loyalty to Naomi, her mother in law. After taking this pledge, Naomi and Ruth move to Bethlehem, where Naomi was originally from. They were poor and alone, but Naomi had mentioned a well off relative called Boaz who owned land. It was harvest time and she was allowed to glean from Boaz’s fields. Boaz notices Ruth and instructs his workers to allow her to gather among the sheaves and even purposefully leave stalks for her on the ground from their own gatherings. Naomi notices the amount of barley was greater than should have been gathered and knew what Boaz had done and urged Ruth to continue. Boaz made sure Ruth was properly looked after and come time for the harvest festival, Naomi gave Ruth instruction for prodding Boaz into marriage, as he was the next of kin. Ruth was instructed “Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 
4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” (Ruth 3:3) As a child, this seemed to be the odd bit of the story, I later found out that culturally and historically, the word feet was used as a euphemism for male genitalia (SOURCE) and this all becomes a bit clearer once you realize what actually was happening, compared to laying at his feet in the cold. Ruth did as she was told and went to Boaz that night and uncovered him. He was startled awake and asked who she was and what she was doing, she explained that she was Ruth and asked him to spread his garment over her since he was her next of kin. He agreed but mentioned there was one closer than he but he would marry her if the other wished not to. She was instructed to lie until morning and he would then go make sure everything was settled. The next morning he sent her home with a shawl full of barley and went to make sure he could claim Ruth and the family property as his own. Then they married and had a son and eventually became the great grandparents of King David, showing this an important story in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
The Land of Moab
Deuteronomy 1:5 says that Moab is a place east of the river Jordan. (Source) The meaning of the word “Moab” is “the seed of the father” or “desirable land” (source) Ruth, the great grandmother of King David, was from Moab, but the land also was home to several other key events in biblical history. Moab is where John the Baptist was beheaded, it’s also where Moses died and where the Israelites made their last camp before crossing into the Promised Land. (source) The Moabites, and the land in which they lived, started as a descendent line from Lot’s oldest son, Moab. Their land was one that offered several exports in their time. Limestone, salt, and balsam were things they were able to export and sell. The land and its inhabitants were along the King’s Highway, so they were able to make a very reasonable amount of money from natural resources. However sometime in the Persian period, Moab disappears from all historical record and was overrun by Arabian tribes. There wasn’t a set religion in the land of Moab, but there was a chief god that most worshipped called Chemosh, to which there were sometimes human sacrifices made. King Solomon made a temple to this god that wasn’t destroyed until the time of Josiah. The language of the land was a Hebrew dialect that has long since been extinct. They opposed the Israelite invasion of Canaan and were excluded from the congregation for ten generations. However, that’s not an accurate span of time. Moab was a land filled with greatness, natural resources, sadness, and triumph. It is interesting to see how the citizens of this place lived and what they believed and how they spoke. Clearly the most well known person to ever come from Moab is Ruth. She was kind and caring, devoted and loving and found favor in the eyes of God.