Have you been taught that the "Moabitess" Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi, was a
Moabite? Yes, of course you have.... However, that is NOT the Truth About Ruth!
Ruth 1:4
[4] And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the
one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about
ten years.
In the first chapter of the book of Ruth it appears to be quite clear that Ruth and her sister
Orpah were Moabite by descent or lineage.
Ruth 1:1
[1] Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there
was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to
sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
Further, as we can see in the above verse, Naomi, with her husband and sons, went to
sojourn “in the country of Moab.”
Now, if we stop here, we got about as far into this
matter as the traditional scholars, theologians, biblical historians, and the vast masses
of people who look to the bible as the word of God. By stopping here we are doing
what so many do with the bible and in bible study, we take what appears to be
“obvious” and indisputable as fact, then either ignore or find it imperative to “explain
away” the contradictions within scripture created by our newly created “fact.”
What contradictions are we referring to? For just one (there are several):
Deuteronomy. 23:3
[3] An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of
the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the
congregation of the LORD for ever:
The Israelites had driven the Moabites out of the land of Moab hundreds of years previous to Ruth’s time. Therefore, Ruth was only a Moabite geographically; not genetically...
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Simon was also named "the Canaanite" Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18
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Paul called "Roman"
Acts 22:25 -
Tobias called "Ammonite"
Nehemiah 2:10
Q:
"If Ruth was an Israelite why did she give away her child to Naomi to Nurse?
[A question that has been raised in defense of calling Ruth a Moabite]
A:
Naomi “nursed” Child [Ruth 4]
nurse = lə·’ō·me·neṯ.
From (H539) Strong's aman: to confirm, support
Exhaustive Concordance: to confirm, support
Brown-Driver-Briggs:
1 as verb support, nourish 2 Kings 10:1,5; Esther 2:7,
2 as substantive foster-father Numbers 11:12 (J) Isaiah 49:23.
3 אֹמֶנֶת foster-mother, nurse Ruth 4:16; 2 Samuel 4:4
Original Word: אָמַן
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: aman
the word that is translated as "nurse" in Ruth 4:16 is the Hebrew word "'aman" which means, " to support, uphold and nourish". This word is never used in the scriptures to refer to the literal act of breastfeeding or suckling a child.
example: Isaiah 49:23:
And kings shall be thy nursing ("aman") fathers, and their queens thy nursing ("yanaq") mothers
(the phrase "nursing mothers" is the Hebrew word "yanaq" which means "to suckle or to suck." )
Ruth 4:12
[12] And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.
*Direct parallel to the Book of Genesis 30:3-4
In the Book of Genesis Rachel provided to Jacob her maidservant, Bilhah, so that Bilhah could bear proxy children on behalf of Rachel. (compare Ruth 4:16, 12).
Obed was therefore laid on Naomi's lap in the same way that Bilhah's offspring were laid on the knees of Rachel (as proxy children), and so Naomi was the "mother" of Obed (who became the father of Jesse, who became the father of King David, whose descendant is Ha Mashiach.
**Naomi was adopting Obed as her own son, to be the heir of Elimelech’s estate.
Proxy
the authority to represent someone else
{representative, substitute, delegate, surrogate, stand-in}
Judah’s eldest two sons were slain by YHWH, Er for his wickedness and Onan for his disrespect for the very law Boaz invokes to accomplish his goal to marry Ruth. Now Er and Onan were both from a Canaanite mother, the first wife of Judah. Point being...
God slew Onan for not obeying a part of the very law that Mehlon and Boaz would
likewise have been guilty of breaking had Ruth really been Moabite!