Árdís - 01.01.1964, Page 17

Ársrit Bandalags lúterskra kvenna
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the story of our heroine Ruth. Both girls came to their husbands’
home to live, accepting their God and their way of life, thereby
forsaking their own people and traditions. We can well imagine
how hard it must have been for Naomi to accept her heathen
daughters-in-law. She must have been a wise and tolerant woman
to be able to meet a situation like that with courage and dignity.
We are told that they lived for ten years in the land of Moab,
and during that time great sorrows came to the family. The father
and the two sons had died, leaving the three women alone and
destitute. Naomi, sorrowful, old and weary, finds that she does not
belong in this strange land, that has deprived her of all her loved
ones. Her thoughts go back to her beloved Israel, and to the old
trusted friends there. She now decides to go back home. She, being
a just woman, knows that it is not fair to ask her daughters-in-law
to accompany her, so she entreats them to go home to their mother’s
house. Orpha was quite willing to do so, but Ruth refused to leave
her. Turning to her mother-in-law she utters the immortal words
“Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after
thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I
will lodge: thy people shall be my people and thy God my God:
Where thou'diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord
do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”
(Ruth 1:16, 17) Having said these words, she now accepts the
responsibility of caring for her mother-in-law in her old age.
They now set forth on their journey, a distance of 120 miles,
and in our minds we can see them trudging along or riding on
mules, the feeble old woman, and the strong young one. After a
long and wearisome journey Naomi comes again to Bethlehem, at
the beginning of the barley harvest.
As the women were without means, it became Ruth’s respon-
sibility to be the bread winner. The accepted task in those days
was that of following the reapers and gathering up fragments of
grain which fell and were left behind for the poor. This was the
way Ruth had to make their living, it was hard work, but Ruth
accepted it as it was the only means of earning a living for herself
and Naomi.
One day as Ruth was gleaning in a field belonging to Boaz,
a kinsman of her husband, we are told how Boaz, seeing the