Story of Ruth and Naomi by Alice Joyce Davidson

Both women make the best of what life hands them, taking an active role in shaping their own futures. Without straying from the Bible’s tale, Smith provides a retelling that gives a detailed look at what life might have been like in pagan Moab for the devout Hebrew, Naomi, and mirrors that with the Moabite Ruth’s struggle for acceptance when it’s her turn to leave her own land and dwell among strangers. So Naomi sets in motion a plan to achieve just that for her faithful daughter-in-law.

It won’t be easy for a Moabite woman in Israel, but if Ruth can find favor with Elimelech’s kinsman Boaz, according to Hebrew law Boaz can redeem Ruth’s barren widowhood, giving Ruth a good life and giving Naomi grandsons. Having lost everything in Moab, Naomi and Ruth bravely set out to create a new life for themselves in Bethlehem.

While one daughter-in-law remains in Moab, the other refuses to abandon Naomi. Ruth vows that Naomi’s people will be her people, and Naomi’s god will be her god. But when her husband dies, and her sons die without heirs, Naomi decides to return to her own land and people. For as years go by, Naomi’s husband and sons are seduced by Moab’s permissive society and pagan religion, and both her sons marry Moabite women. When drought and famine ravage ancient Canaan, Elimelech takes his wife and two sons and moves from the Hebrew land to Moab, much to his wife Naomi’s regret.

Story of Ruth and Naomi by Alice Joyce Davidson