Is Ruth a Lesson in Loyalty or an Excuse for Patriarchy?

After the harvest ends, Naomi tells Ruth she wants to find her a home where she'll be well-provided for and hatches a plan for Ruth to seduce Boaz. Naomi instructs Ruth to put on her best clothes and perfume and go to Boaz's threshing room. Once he's eaten and drunk his wine and goes to sleep, Naomi says, "uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do." ("Feet," scholars note, is most likely a euphemism for genitals.)

Without protest, Ruth agrees to the plan. Boaz doesn't stir until midnight, then he's startled by the girl's presence. Ruth identifies herself and asks him to act as a "kinsman-redeemer," or as a provider. Boaz blesses her as a "woman of noble character" and eagerly agrees to her request. But, he adds, there is another closer kinsman who must first be dealt with. He tells Ruth to spend the night, then sends her back to Naomi laden with grain and a promise to settle the matter quickly.

Boaz finds the other kinsman and gathers around 10 elders as witnesses. He tells the kinsman that Naomi is selling a parcel of land that belonged to Elimelech and that the kinsman has the right of first refusal, ahead of Boaz himself. The man says he'll buy it. ok, Boaz says, but that means he'll also acquire the widow Ruth. The putative buyer balks at this arrangement: It "might endanger my own estate." Boaz then announces that he will acquire the land and Ruth.

They marry and have a son. The village women rejoice that "Naomi has a son," whom they name Obed. The story ends with Naomi caring for the boy and with no further mention of Ruth. Moreover, it notes, Obed eventually sires Jesse, who is David's father.

The story has its critics. It's attacked by some feminists for excusing patriarchy. Patricia K. Tull, author of Esther and Ruth, rejects that view. A male-dominated world was the only one Ruth and Naomi knew: "It's not as if there were an alternative society they could have moved to. It's not as if they could have started a chapter of now—that wouldn't have solved their hunger problem."

The book has also been chided for endorsing assimilation, because Ruth gives up her heritage, her family, and her god, then disappears at the end. But Tull says Ruth made those decisions voluntarily. "There was no proselytizing going on."