Ruth 1:16: And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge: your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
Someone once wrote a song with the words: “You are the only Jesus that some people will ever see.” This verse in Ruth is probably the most famous and most quoted verse in the book, and it always seems to focus on Ruth’s love for her mother-in-law that was her motivation for wanting to stay with her. Yet, we all know the big price Ruth would pay for staying with her mother-in-law and not returning to her own people.
Historically, the land of Moab, where Ruth hails from, is located in the Transjordan Highlands adjacent to the Land of Judea just opposite of the Jordan River. They were polytheistic and worshipped the god Chemosh who apparently had a wife named Nabu-Chemosh a descendent of Astarte the goddess of sexuality, also known in Ugaritic culture as the goddess Anat who seemed to favor the companionship of mortal men. Solomon allowed his Moabite wives to build a temple in the high lands to the goddess Astarte which required a young woman to have a sexual encounter with a total stranger at least once in her life at the foot of the altar. Under the Astarte cult women were considered nothing more than sex toys for the men and highly prized for their beauty, but remained as property nonetheless.
In the Hebrew culture men at least loved their wives and respected them and hence Ruth and her sister would have likely known a relationship with their Hebrew husbands that were not enjoyed by most Moabite women. A beautiful woman under the Astarte cult would normally have a husband who was not much more than a pimp and sell her out for prostitution.
On top of all this the Moabites also worshiped Chemosh who is a descendant of Moloch. The sacrifice of children was not that common during Ruth’s day, but it did exist when extreme circumstances existed and they wanted to appease Chemosh. Still, Chemosh was a god to be feared and the Moabites believed Chemosh allowed Judah to conquer them because he was angry with them. So another reason Ruth and her sister did not want to return to their people would be because many saw them as traitors for marrying men from the conquering nation, although they had to offer grudging respect out of fear of the wrath of Chemosh.
This historical background may shed a little more light onto the motives of Ruth and her sister. Ruth’s sister, Orpah, was not a bad sort, she probably loved Naomi just as much as Ruth did but at least she obeyed her mother-in-law which was, culturally, the right thing to do. Ruth was the rebel; she did not go with tradition, stood up to her mother-in-law and defied her, albeit in a loving way. Orpah kissed Naomi, a common Near Eastern practice of saying goodbye. But Ruth refused the customary good by kiss and clung to Naomi. In Hebrew the word cling is devakut, which means she hugged Naomi.
Ruth then declares: Where you go. In Hebrew this is Ki el asher. However, Ruth may have been speaking a variant of her own Moabite language. The Moabite language is an extinct Canaanite language which is Semitic in its roots, uses a variant of the Phoenician Alphabet and is the language where Aramaic and Arabic finds its roots. Hence there is a very subtle and interesting play on words here. For in this context what she is saying: “Where you go to be blessed, I will go.” More specifically to the context, “Where you go to be blessed by God I will go.” Translators will not go this far as clearly Naomi had nothing to offer Ruth, only poverty, hardship and no hope of marriage – some blessing huh?
But this play on the Canaanite and Hebrew words goes further as she says: “Where you lodge I will lodge.” The word lodge in Hebrew is alin which could come from the root word lin which means to lodge, or spend the night somewhere. But that would mean the third letter had to be a Vav and not a Yod. She is talking about living with Naomi in her land, why not use the word dwell, why use the word for spending the night in a motel. Yeah, I know a woman traveling alone would be dangerous and Ruth wanted to protect Naomi, but this does not follow the train of thought here. I believe there is a Canaanite origin in this word for lodge. The Hebrew text uses a Yod, as the third letter. This makes it the Aramaic ‘alayan. The closest we have to the Hebrew would be ’alavan which means lodge and translators just assumed we had an anomaly here. I think not, I believe the writer deliberately used a Yod rather than a Vav for the third letter to show Ruth was speaking her native language and hence this would be rendered as: “Where you will draw closer to God, I will draw closer to God.” If we use this rendering then the following statements would make more sense as she would then become one of Naomi’s people, a Hebrew, a follower of Jehovah. Thus, Naomi’s God, Jehovah would become her God.
Yes, Ruth stayed with Naomi because she loved her, but her sister Orpah also loved Naomi. Ruth saw something Orpah did not see, she saw a God so unlike the god of her people, a God who loved her like her husband loved her, not a God who would prostitute her, but from the example of Naomi’s son she saw a God who would personally love her and be a husband to her. It didn’t matter if she entered a world of poverty or disgrace, she would serve a God who loved her and not use her or abuse her as the Astarte goddess. She had never been in the land of Israel, never visited a Levitical city and joined in worship with others. She never had the advantage of sitting under Levitical teachers, but she had her husband and mother-in-law and in them she saw the God that she fell in love with.
Next time you are tempted to tell off that flustered little waitress for getting your order wrong and threatening to tell her manager, just remember the story of Ruth and Naomi, sometimes you may be the only Jesus that some people will ever see, a God who is not as hard and demanding as the god of this world.
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