In this series we explored how the Israelites at the end of Judges appear to act virtuously, but in reality approach blessings to God, searching for a home, hospitality, and seeking unity through depravity and sin. We then saw how characters in Ruth infuse virtue into each of these societal acts while learning to see beyond Ruth’s foreign surface and recognize her inner goodness. In this last chapter of Judges we will contrast one final theme: how the Israelites in Judges and then in Ruth attempt to save a part of Israel they fear may become lost forever.

After the Israelites win the civil war against their brother Benjamin, they virtuously cry out upon realizing the men of Benjamin have no women to marry and therefore may disappear as a tribe. The Israelites, however, are themselves to blame as they killed all the women of Benjamin and had earlier taken an oath against marrying into the tribe of Benjamin. In fact, they swore that anyone from among Israel who did not partake in this oath should be put to death. The Israelites then realize that the people of Jabesh-gilead were not at the oath-taking ceremony.

The Israelites send fighters to Jabesh-gilead with instruction to kill all the men, married women and children, thereby seemingly fulfilling their obligation to kill those who didn’t take that oath. They then leave the virgin women alive, breaking the very oath they just murdered a whole city for, and give those women to the Benjaminite men. There are not enough women, however, so they instruct the men of Benjamin to hide and seize other women celebrating a festival for the Lord. The Israelites have “saved” a tribe of Israel through additional mass killings and seizing of innocent women.

In the last chapter of Ruth, Boaz also encounters the potential loss of a part of Israel, the possibility of Naomi’s family’s names disappearing if a relative does not redeem their field. After a closer relative declines to redeem the field and marry Ruth, Boaz, a distant relative, marries Ruth and redeems the field as he proclaims that 'the name of the deceased should not be cut off from among his brothers' (Ruth 4:10). This redemption ends not with mass killing, but with a new life, the birth of a son to Boaz and Ruth.

Through exploring words, actions and themes, we saw how the book of Ruth serves as a contrast to the corruption in the end of Judges. The book of Ruth then is a redemptive story about a nation as they learn to look beyond the surface, and overcome their transgressions from Judges. While the last episodes in Judges refrain and ultimately end with there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25), the book of Ruth concludes with the pronouncement that the people merit a new era of kingship, as the union of Boaz and Ruth leads directly to the birth of King David.

Jennifer Raskas is the Washington D.C. Manager for the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. For a fuller exploration about the contrast between the end of the Book of Judges and the Book of Ruth, please see: Raskas, Jennifer R. “The Book of Ruth: A Contrast to the End of the Book of Judges.” Jewish Bible Quarterly. Volume 43:4 (2015): p. 223-232

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