Greetings! This Thursday Impact will continue with Ruth 3! Here are the questions:
RUTH 3 Questions
1. While Ruth was winnowing in the fields during the two harvests (barley, wheat,
from mid April to early June), what do you think Naomi was doing?
2. What might have been Naomi’s agenda behind her comment of verse one?
3. How do you think that Ruth felt when her mother-in-law asked her to take the
actions of vv 2-5?
4. Do you think that there was anyone else at the threshing floor besides Boaz? Why
or why not?
5. How did Boaz know that “all my people in my town know that you are a woman
of noble character?” v11
6. Do the events of vv 7-14 affect your assessment of Ruth’s character?
7. Kinfolk in the Ancient Near East were expected to perform various civic and
judicial duties (don’t forget there were no police, banks, or government). Check
out the verses for these three important roles in early Israelite society:
(1) The avenger of blood. In the case of murder, kin had the family responsibility to
avenge a wrongful death. Num 35:16-28
(2) The redemption of land. (Jer 32:7) Farming was the basic means of survival and
prosperity, and thus land was essential. Land passed down from one generation
to the next, staying within the family. Because of poverty (e.g. in times of famine
or warfare), a family might have to sell its land. Kinfolk had the right to buy back
the land so that it remained within the extended family, and the original family
had the right to buy it back from those kin when times improved. Theoretically
every 50th year, the Year of Jubilee (7x7,+1) the land would revert back to its
original family ownership.
(3) Marriage to a sister-in-law. Deut 25: 5-10. If a married man died childless, his
brother had the obligation to marry his widow in order to perpetuate the family
name. To refuse this responsibility was shameful.
8. How many different story lines do you observe in the book of Ruth?
9. What other observations do you have and what of personal worth do you learn
from this chapter?
