Ruth 4. It must have been a deep blow indeed to Naomi, and a cause of no little shame, to have had to move to Moab, and an even deeper blow when her two fine sons, Mahlon and Chilion, took for themselves Moabite wives. Moabites! EGAD! Moabites, as was very plainly stated in the law of Moses, were not permitted in the Israelite assembly. To marry a Moabitess was definitely marrying down not up. And even though she ended up getting on splendidly with her daughters-in-law, it was likely an embarrassment for her to return to Bethlehem with one of them in tow, even such an impressive one as Ruth.
But no-longer-bitter Naomi is singing a different tune about Moabites at the end of chapter 4, as she bounces her beautiful grandson, the future gandpa of King David, on her knee! Boaz has straightened out the issue of the other redeeming kinsman; Ruth is married and, we presume happy; because her mother-in-law is happy. All is right with the world. In the greatest of turnarounds, God, for Naomi, turns out to be not a mean old man in the sky but a beautiful young Moabite! RS
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