Rut
b. c. 1155 BCE · Biblical era · Moab (the Moabite plateau)
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Ruth was a Moabite woman who married Mahlon, son of Elimelech and Naomi of Beit Lechem, while the family lived in Moab (Ruth 1:2-4). After her husband, his brother and her father-in-law had all died, Naomi set out for home and urged her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab. Ruth refused: 'wherever you go, I will go ... your people shall be my people, and your God my God' (Ruth 1:16-17). In Beit Lechem she gleaned barley in the field of Boaz, a kinsman of Elimelech. He had heard of her loyalty and blessed her as one who had sought refuge 'under the wings' of the God of Israel (Ruth 2:2-12). Following Naomi's plan, she went to Boaz at night on the threshing floor and asked him to act as a redeeming kinsman (Ruth 3:1-13). Boaz settled the matter before the town elders, and she became his wife (Ruth 4:1-13). Their son Oved was the grandfather of King David (Ruth 4:17). The Talmud (Yevamot 47b) draws on her exchange with Naomi as a model for how converts are received. Rabbinic sources attribute the book to Shmuel (Bava Batra 14b).
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Moab (the Moabite plateau)Transjordan, east of the Dead Sea (Jordan)
What they did here
A Moabite woman who married into Elimelech's family while they lived in 'the country of Moab' (Ruth 1:2-4). Boaz speaks of 'the land of your birth' (Ruth 2:11). No town is named, so the pin is regional.
In Moab (the Moabite plateau) at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Rut’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Rut’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.
Jewish world
- Devorah (the Judge-Prophetess)· 1200 BCE–1124 BCE
- Barak ben Avinoam· b. 1160 BCE
- Yael eshet Chever HaKeini (Jael)· b. 1160 BCE
- Shimshon ben Manoach (Samson)· 1110 BCE–1070 BCE
- Eli HaKohen· 1108 BCE–1028 BCE
- Chana (mother of Shmuel)· b. 1100 BCE
- Yiftach HaGiladi (Jephthah the Gileadite)· d. 1090 BCE
- Gidon ben Yoash (Gideon)· d. 1100 BCE
- Ehud ben Gera (the left-handed Judge)· d. 1150 BCE
Egyptian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.