August 22, 2025: Ruth 1:1, 3- 6.4b-16, 22

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Please read the text before the commentary.

       The Book of Ruth is a book about people crossing borders.  Ruth was a Moabite woman, married to an Israelite and man and widowed from him.  Her mother-in-law Noami, had migrated to Moab with her family at a time of famine in Isarel. Her husband and sons had all died, and she prepared to return home with Ruth her daughter-in-law.

Ruth arrived at the time of the barley harvest.  She went out to glean after the harvesters, as many a poor person would have done then.  She attracted the notice of Boaz, who was a relative of her father-in-law.  She became the great-grandmother of King David.  Ruth, the foreigner and immigrant, became an ancestor of the great king of Israel David.  This also made her an ancestor of Jesus Chrit, who is a descendent of King David.

In our country, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Woodrow Wilson were sons of immigrant parents.  Herbert Hoover ‘s mother was Canadian.  Donald Trump’s father was a German immigrant.  Maybe some recent or current immigrant may become a future President of our country.

Ruth forms a bridge between the pre-monarchical judges and the kings of ancient Israel.  Ruth the immigrant is an important person in the history of the Bible.