📖 Biblical Definition
Ruth was a Moabite woman who married Mahlon (son of Naomi); was widowed; refused to leave her bereaved mother-in-law (thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God); returned with Naomi to Bethlehem; gleaned in the fields of Boaz; became Boaz's wife when he acted as kinsman-redeemer; bore Obed, who fathered Jesse, who fathered David. She is one of four women named in Christ's genealogy (Mt 1:5).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Moabite great-grandmother of King David; covenant-loyalty model; ancestress of Christ.
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Book of Ruth: 4 chapters; departure and grief (1), gleaning and meeting Boaz (2), threshing-floor scene (3), redemption and lineage (4).
Genealogically: married Mahlon; widowed; remarried Boaz; bore Obed; great-grandmother to David; ancestress to Christ. Theologically: Moabite outsider grafted into Israel by covenant loyalty; the LORD gathers Gentiles into His people through faith.
📖 Key Scripture
Ruth 1:16 — "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."
Ruth 2:12 — "The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust."
Ruth 4:13 — "So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife."
Matthew 1:5 — "And Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity often celebrates Ruth's loyalty to Naomi without honoring the deeper redemption-typology and Gentile-inclusion theology her story contains.
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Ruth as Moabite is significant. The Moabites were forbidden entrance to the assembly of the LORD to the tenth generation (Deut 23:3). Ruth's faith and Boaz's redemption supersede this; the LORD's mercy reaches the Moabite grandmother of His own anointed king.
Boaz as kinsman-redeemer (go'el) is a christological type: the wealthy near-relative who pays the redemption price, takes the widow as wife, restores the lost inheritance, raises seed to the dead. The household's redemption is the antitype of Boaz's.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew Rut; possibly friend or companion.
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Hebrew Rut — possibly from a root meaning ‘friend’ or ‘refreshment’.
Note: one of two books in the Hebrew Bible named for a woman (the other is Esther).
Usage
"Whither thou goest, I will go."
"The Moabite outsider grafted into Israel by covenant loyalty."
"Boaz as kinsman-redeemer is christological type."