Sunday, January 15, 2017

RUTH

1- There's a famine in the land!  So, a dude takes his wife and two sons from Bethlehem to the land of the Moabites.  His name was Elimelek, his wife's name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Kilion.  However, Elimelek soon died.  The two sons then married Moabites, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth.  After about 10 years, Mahlon and Kilion died, too.
However, news soon spread that Yahweh had given mercy to the cult by providing them with food again, so Naomi planned on going back to the Promised Land.  However, she told Orpah and Ruth to go back to their own families an remarry.  Orpah is down, but Ruth refuses, wanting to stick with Naomi and join the cult in the Promised Land.
So, Naomi returned to Bethlehem with Ruth.  The whole town is happy to see Naomi return, but Naomi herself is really emo and insists that everyone call her "Mara" ("Bitter") and not Naomi "("Pleasant") because Yahweh has caused her life to be all fucked up.

2- Anyway, Ruth goes to the barley fields during the harvest to glean some leftover crops, and she ends up meeting the owner of the field, a dude named Boaz (a relative of Elimelek).  Boaz is super nice to her and lets her stay and glean in the field as a token of how impressed he was that Ruth, a Moabite foreigner, has decided to stick with Naomi.  He blesses her in the name of Yahweh.  Later on, he even invites her to have some bread and wine vinegar, and tells his men to help her when they're harvesting in order to make it easier for her to glean.  So Ruth then continued to glean, and then she returned hom in the evening, and then told Naomi about what happened.  Naomi is happy and blesses Boaz and tells Ruth to continue working for him.  So Ruth continues to glean in Boaz's field until the harvest is finished, and continues to live with Naomi.

3- It seems like Naomi is either getting sick of living with Ruth, or feels like Ruth deserves to find love, because Naomi wants Ruth to finder her own place.  So, Naomi suggests that Ruth seduce Boaz, which is technically lawful in the eyes of Yahweh since Boaz is a relative of Elimelek.  After he's finished working the field, the plan is for Ruth to wait until he finishes his dinner and gets drunk, and then she's to go to his bed and fuck him (or "uncover his feet", whatever that means).
So Ruth goes and does as Naomi instructs.  Boaz then wakes up and notices that Ruth is lying there at his feet.  He then blesses her, but informs her that actually there's another dude in town who is a closer relative of Elimelek's, and thus more appropriate to marry her, but if this guy doesn't want to then Boaz will.  So, the next morning, Ruth quickly leaves the threshing floor where Boaz and his workers are sleeping, taking some barley with her that had been given to her by Boaz.
Later, Ruth tells Naomi everything that happened, and Naomi tells her to wait and see how the situation will play out.

4- Meanwhile, Boaz then meets the other relative of Elimelek that he had told Ruth about, along with 10 elders.  He then tells them that Naomi is selling some land, and that the relative should buy it because he's the closest relative of Elimelek.  The relative is down, but when he learns that he will also then "get" Ruth along with the land as part of the deal, the relative changes his mind because he didn't want to jeopardize the inheritance of his own estate (kind of confusing as to why this is, but whatever).  So, Boaz decides to buy the property, and thus he also "gets" Ruth as a part of the land.  The elders then give their blessings to Boaz.
So, Boaz then marries Ruth and when they have sex, Yahweh makes it so that Ruth gets pregnant, and then she gives birth to a son named Obed (grandfather of King David).  Naomi is also Obed's wet nurse (even though she's pretty old at this point, which is weird).

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