Illustration created for this project.

Ruth — the Moabite

A Moabite widow whose loyalty to Naomi brought her to Bethlehem, where she married Boaz and became an ancestor of David and of Jesus.

Role: Great-grandmother of David

Lived: c. 11th century BC

Belonged to: Genealogy of Jesus

Born: Moab

What we know — and how we know it

Bible — stated in scripture (with verse) · 2 Scholarly — supported scholarly belief · 1

Origin & birthplace

BibleA Moabite widow whose loyalty brought her to Bethlehem, where she married Boaz.

Ruth 1:16; 4:13

↳ Bethlehem · Boaz · Naomi

Family & lineage

BibleThrough her son Obed she became the great-grandmother of King David — and an ancestor of Jesus.

Ruth 4:17; Matthew 1:5

↳ Boaz

Death & legacy

ScholarlyThe kinsman-redeemer and levirate customs the book turns on are well attested in ancient Israelite and Near Eastern law.

Ancient Near Eastern legal custom

Where in scripture

Ruth Matthew

They took for themselves wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years.
Ruth 1:4

They lifted up their voices, and wept again; then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth joined with her.
Ruth 1:14

Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.
Ruth 1:16 — Her vow to Naomi

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.
Ruth 1:22

Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
Ruth 2:2

Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go to glean in another field, and don’t go from here, but stay here close to my maidens.
Ruth 2:8

Ruth the Moabitess said, “Yes, he said to me, ‘You shall stay close to my young men, until they have finished all my harvest.’”
Ruth 2:21

Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field.”
Ruth 2:22

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.

Ruth 1:4 Ruth 1:14 Ruth 1:16 Ruth 1:22 Ruth 2:2 Ruth 2:8 Ruth 2:21 Ruth 2:22 Ruth 3:9 Ruth 4:5 Ruth 4:10 Ruth 4:13 Matthew 1:5

Family

In their own words — 9 recorded sayings

“But Ruth said, Give up requesting me to go away from you, or to go back without you: for where you go I will go; and where you take your rest I will take my rest; your people will be my people, and your God my God. Wherever death comes to you, death will come to me, and there will be my last resting-place; the Lord do so to me and more if we are parted by anything but death.” — Ruth 1:16-17

“And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Now let me go into the field and take up the heads of grain after him in whose eyes I may have grace. And she said to her, Go, my daughter.” — Ruth 2:2

“Then she went down on her face to the earth, and said to him, Why have I grace in your eyes, that you give attention to me, seeing I am from a strange people?” — Ruth 2:10

“Then she said, May I have grace in your eyes, my lord, for you have given me comfort, and you have said kind words to your servant, though I am not like one of your servants.” — Ruth 2:13

“And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you take up the grain today, and where were you working? May a blessing be on him who gave such attention to you. And she gave her mother-in-law an account of where she had been working, and said, The name of the man with whom I was working today is Boaz.” — Ruth 2:19