Analytical Essay: The Book Of Ruth

The book of Ruth has only four chapters. The story begins with a husband and wife who have two sons and move to a foreign country to escape a famine at home; the sons both marry in the foreign country. Then the husband and two sons die leaving behind three childless widows. The story ends on a happy note when the wife returns home bringing along one daughter-in-law who eventually marries a God-fearing Jew, which returns the family property to her and the two have a son who becomes the ancestor to David and Christ the Savior. The opening of chapter one is the narrative of an Israelite family, Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. A famine at Bethlehem (meaning “house of bread”!), their hometown, prompts the family to relocate to Moab where the sons marry Ruth and Orpah, natives of Moab. The death of her husband and her sons and the news that there is

Both Jewish and Christian traditions ascribe authorship to Jeremiah. The original name of the book in Hebrew, ekah, can be translated “Alas!” or “How,” giving the sense of weeping or lamenting over some sad event. Later readers and translators substituted in the title “Lamentations” because of its clearer and more evocative meaning. It’s this idea of lamenting that, for many, links Jeremiah to the book. Not only does the author of the book witness the results of the recent destruction of Jerusalem, he seems to have witnessed the invasion itself (Jeremiah 1:13 – 15). Jeremiah was present for both events. As the verses of Lamentations accumulate, readers cannot help but wonder how many different ways Jeremiah could describe the desolation of the once proud city of Jerusalem. Children begged food from their mothers (Lamentation 2:12), young men and women were cut down by swords (2:21), and formerly compassionate mothers used their children for food