I was at the start of the research process for writing a retelling of the book of Ruth when I had a conversation with a male friend that really riled me.
To me, Ruth was a beautiful story about a vulnerable outsider being welcomed into the people of God. Or, maybe it was a beautiful story about an embittered older woman coming face to face with God’s kindness. Whichever, it was certainly a story about women. That’s why so many of us love it, isn’t it? I’m not sure I can think of a more female-oriented story in Scripture. It says to us, Sister, God loves you!
But my friend disagreed.
He started quoting chapter 4—the long discussion about Elimelech’s field, and the genealogy at the very end. “Don’t you think the theme of inheritance is important?” he asked. “The story is really all about the continuation of the family line. From Abraham to David.”
I was unnerved.
My friend was right. In Ruth 4, Boaz suddenly started talking about a piece of land, and we find ourselves in the midst of a council of male elders, swamped in legal terms. Boaz’s main concern seems not to be Ruth and Naomi but the formal continuation of Elimelech’s family line. Then the whole chapter finishes off with a genealogy full of men, ending in David.
Have we been hoodwinked into thinking this is a beautiful, personal story about two women, when really it’s just an ironing-out of a blip in the male line of God’s people? At best, a backstory for King David?
Does the final chapter of Ruth ruin the story for women who want to know that God cares for us as individuals?
You’ll be glad to hear that my answer is no! The more I studied, the more I realized that the beauty of the book of Ruth actually lies precisely in the way the story weaves together these seemingly opposing themes—the personal and the political, the female and the male. In fact, Ruth 4 provides an opportunity to see some amazing truths about how God sets women at the heart of His grand story of redemption and cares for the individual just as much as he cares for His people as a whole.
Remembering Mahlon
It isn’t only women who experience generous inclusion in this story. In 4:5 and 4:10 we see that Mahlon, Ruth’s deceased husband and Naomi’s son, is also included: the point of buying the field and marrying Ruth is “to perpetuate the deceased man’s name on his property, so that his name will not disappear among his relatives or from the gate of his hometown” (v. 10).
That’s what all the back-and-forth about the land and the marriage is about: Mahlon.
It seems arcane to us—Mahlon was dead and gone several chapters ago, so what good can anyone do him now? But it’s significant. It shows us how important it is to be part of the family of God. In acquiring the field alongside marrying Ruth, Boaz is in some way redeeming the loss of Mahlon, restoring him to his place in the annals of the history of Israel and erasing the error of having gone to Moab.
“Both of their names [Mahlon’s and Elimelek’s] would still be encircled with honor, and might, by the blessing of Yahveh, be linked on distinguishingly and lovingly to future generations … The people who assembled at the gate might on some future day be able to say, ‘This boy is the heir of Machlon and Elimelech’” (Pulpit Commentary on Ruth 4:10).
You get a sense that this is not about mere legalities—creating an unbroken link in a male line. It’s personal. Mahlon’s name won’t be forgotten. He’s still part of the family, and he will be forever.
Like Rachel and Leah
This helps us understand what’s happening to Ruth. She isn’t just being given marriage, a home, and financial security. She is being brought right into the family of God.
It’s striking how often people in this story call Ruth “the Moabite.” She’s not just a poor young widow, she’s a foreigner, and at no point does anyone forget it. Perhaps this is because foreign women were bad news from an ancient Israelite perspective. It goes right back to Genesis. Esau’s marriage to two Hittite women was “a source of grief” to his parents (Gen. 26:35, NIV); so when Jacob was ready to marry, he made a long journey to find a wife from among his own extended family. Rachel and Leah were the right kind of wife, and so they were the ones “who together built the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11).
In the verse I just quoted, it is the foreigner Ruth who was being compared to Rachel and Leah—a fact that would surely have been astounding to Israelite ears. Ruth was not the right kind of wife, at least not by normal standards. Yet here she is, getting a place at the heart of God’s people, in the family line of Abraham, Jacob, and Judah. The people pray, “May the LORD make this woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah” (v. 11). It’s like taking someone nobody has ever heard of—someone deeply undesirable—and giving them a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! Ruth, just like Mahlon, now has a name that will never be forgotten. She is not just being loved and included at an individual level. She’s gaining a place in the story of God.
A Son for Naomi
Poor old Naomi is remembered too. After twelve verses of legal discussions, you might think that the story now belongs to Boaz and Ruth alone (with Mahlon coming third). But back comes Naomi in verse 14, and she’s spoken of as if the whole story was always mainly about her.
“The women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you without a family redeemer today.’”
Ruth has had a child, a son. That’s very good news in a patriarchal society! We might expect this birth to be primarily of benefit to Boaz, or maybe to Mahlon: the child will presumably be heir to both men. Or perhaps the benefit is for Ruth, who can now rest in the knowledge that a son will provide for her in her old age. But no: instead, Obed’s arrival is for Naomi’s benefit. He is her redeemer. He is her son (v. 17).
The book of Ruth began with Naomi’s losses, but now she has a son. She took him in her arms; her life was renewed (4:15-16). And she, too, was restored to her place in the family of God.
The Big Plan and Its Little People
We often talk about the Old Testament as showing us God’s plan of redemption. Right from the earliest chapters of the Bible, there is talk of a coming Savior, a seed, a redeemer who will rescue God’s people. The family line of Israel isn’t just a male line, but a golden thread that shows us God’s plan to bless the whole world.
Talking in those terms can sometimes lead us to think that God’s focus was always primarily on the macro scale. After all, He is a big God; a thousand years are like a day to Him. Yet the story of Ruth shows us that God does also care about the micro. In fact, it’s better than that: God cares about individual people so much that He chose to build His big plan of redemption out of them. Macro and micro are inextricably linked.
God didn’t have to include Naomi, Ruth, or Mahlon in the story of His people. He could have allowed them to suffer and be forgotten. Instead, He brought them into the very heart of His people and His plan—a boy who died young, a bitter old woman, and a foreigner named Ruth.
His care for them is a demonstration of his care for us. Each need is seen, each name remembered (Rev. 3:5). Each one chosen to be part of His plan. Some of us will be significant in the annals of history, and some of us will not—but to each one of us the story of Ruth does indeed say, Sister, brother, God loves you!
To learn more about the book of Ruth, check out Kelly Minter’s Bible study, Ruth: Loss, Love & Legacy.
About Katy Morgan
Katy Morgan is a Senior Editor at The Good Book Company and an ECPA award-winning author. Her newest book in the Bible Retellings Collection, The Outsider, is a dramatic and faithfully biblical retelling of the story of Ruth. Katy loves helping children and young people grow in knowledge and love of Jesus, and she volunteers in the youth work at her church, King’s Church Chessington in Surrey, UK. She holds a master’s degree in classical Greek literature from Cambridge University.
