the ruth monologues
DESCRIPTION
From Moab to the Promised Land.TRANSCRIPT
THE RUTH MONOLOGUES.
1.
ELIMELECH.
ELIMELECH: I am of Bethlehem, a city of the tribe of Judah. A city in
which the inhabitants have been reduced to skeletons due to a famine in
the land of Canaan.
It could see that I would not be able to feed my family and that caused me
a sore distress, so I declared my intention of leaving and travelling to
Moab where there is grain aplenty.
"You should not go," said my father-in-law, and this was also the opinion
of my own father.
"If I stay here, Killon and Mahlon, my sons will surely die as will Naiomi
my wife. I have no intention of allowing that to happen."
"Stay here and ADONAI will provide for you and your family. Here you
will live, in Moab you will perish among the Goyim and their false gods."
"Anything ADONAI will give will be meagre and in all tribes many will
die. In Moab we will prosper."
And so I removed with my wife and two sons to Moab. In Moab I did not
worship the gods of the Moabites, nor did I worship the god of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. I ceased to worship any god, and came to look upon
myself as the author and creator of my good fortune, for in the land of
Moab I became a merchant and my riches increased.
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Naiomi, who had not ceased to worship ADONAI, thought to caution me
on many occasions, but I was filled with my own spirit and heeded her
not.
"Elimelech, it grieves me to see you godless."
"And it perplexes me, Naiomi, to see you on your knees praying to
something you cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. Beyond all the
things that can be detected by our senses nothing exists. The Moabites
make images of their gods, but have they animation? Do they not remain
just graven lumps of stone?"
"ADONAI is not like that. ADONAI is the one and only living God.
Consider the miracles he has performed for his Chosen people."
"The Habiru people would have been better had they not been cajoled
into believing that they were a people chosen by ADONAI, whose deeds
are tales told to the gullible."
That is my considered opinion and I have found it best not to enter into
argument with Naiomi for her mind is closed to the rational.
When I look about me and see all forms of life, of which I am one. I see
that sooner or later all forms of life withers, dies, and rots, so that flesh
departs and only bones remain.
In Moab I am prospering and I will continue to prosper. I would have
been foolish to stay in Canaan and suffer starvation, expecting to be
sustained by Naiomi's ADONAI. No, I intend to build bigger storehouses
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for the wares I deal in. I take matters into my own hands and through my
own efforts I make my fortunate way in the world. My relations with the
Moabites are congenial and from them I chose wives for my sons as
cement to my business.
For Killon I chose Orpah, the daughter of a ruling elder, and for Mahlon I
chose Ruth, whose father was a dealer in gold and silver. Nine years have
passed and all goes well with me.
"You must admit," I said to Naiomi, "that I was right to bring you here.
Look at the good fortune we have had." Naiomi did not answer, so I went
on: "And today I have given a contract for the building of two new
warehouses, and have made contacts that will open up trade with the
Egyptians."
"I fear for you my husband," was all she said.
Naiomi does not like to admit that I was right. Sometimes she does not
live up to her name of pleasant. Nevertheless, I am glad that she has
benefited from my acumen.
2.
NAIOMI.
NAIOMI: I expected more from my marriage to Elimelech, so at heart I
am a disappointed woman. I did not know when I married him that he
was a man who believed in no gods whatsoever. He gave me to believe
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that he worshipped ADONAI, but very soon I found that he worshiped
only himself.
In a way he was worse than those who put their faith in the graven images
of the false gods of the Moabites. They recognized the existence of
ADONAI, but Elimelech denied that ADONAI existed.
When famine came to test us in the land of Canaan, I did not want to go
to Moab, and I still think it would have been best to stay there, but
perhaps it may have been the will of ADONAI that took us to Moab.
I opposed Elimelech at the time but he said it was not reasonable to stay
in a land where we would starve.
"ADONAI, will provide." I said.
"I will provide for you and my sons, Killon and Mahlon," he replied.
In Moab he did provide for nine years. At the beginning of the tenth year
all his vitality waned and his strength left him and he drew his feet into
his bed and he died.
I will not say I missed his presence, for I had my two sons and their wives
were good to me even though they were Moabite women.
"The rains came and their downpour seemed ceaseless and both my sons
who had been trading in Edom were drowned in a flash flood as they
crossed the river Zered on their return to Moab.
Such was my distress at the loss of Killon and Mahlon that I fell into a
state of depression which made me very uneasy. All who were dear to me
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were dead. Why had ADONAI brought this terrible loss into my life?
Why did He have to make me suffer so? I isolated myself and would see
no one.
In that isolation I fought a battle between the atheistic voice of the dead
Elimelech and the whispered words of ADONAI, to come unto Him.
Each time I thought of prostrating my being before ADONAI, I heard the
scathing tones of Elimelech: "Don't be so foolish woman. Stand on your
own two feet because if you won't do anything to help yourself, no-one
will."
A feeling of greater and greater loneliness descended upon me, until at
last I cried out in my pain to ADONAI, asking Him to help me and to tell
me what I needed to do.
I sent a servant to my daughters-in-law asking that they come to me, and
when they came I said to them: "You have been good wives to my sons,
and you have been kind to me, but I have cried out to ADONAI asking
Him what I should do, and this I say to you that I will return to my own
country, for in leaving it I have had only misfortune."
Orpah and Ruth tried to dissuade me, but I was under the rule of
ADONAI.
"I must go back to Canaan. I wish you both a more happy wedlock than
you had with my sons, and that in all other respects may you prosper.
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You must stay in your own country because I am not certain how you
would be received in Canaan in these uncertain times."
They departed from me in tears, and I instructed my servants to prepare
for my departure.
3.
ORPAH.
ORPAH: There are some men who do not beat their wives. Killon, my
husband was not one of them and I was always glad when he went with
his brother on trade missions, it gave me a breathing space and also a
time for my bruises to heal. He never marked me where it could be seen
so my mother-in-law Naiomi did not know of his abuse of me. Nor did
his father when he was alive. To my own parents, a husband beating a
wife was something that happened.
Killon had gone with his brother Mahlon to Edom and it was while they
were returning that they had died in a sudden flood that overtook them
when they were in mid-stream. So say the servants whom they had sent
across the river with the goods from Edom.
There was no saving the two brothers. The violence of the waters took
them and their servants returned to us their rock-abused bodies. They
were buried according to the rituals of Chemosh and two more cairns of
stones arose, one on each side of their father, Elimelech.
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Naiomi, their mother wanted them buried according to the rituals of
ADONAI, (the Habiru god) but my own father's will and that of Ruth
prevailed, and Naiomi was much grieved, and I don't think that Ruth or
myself were of much comfort to her at this time. My mind was taken up
with saying to itself: where will I find another husband who will not beat
me and who will protect me?
When we were with Naiomi she would say such things as: "This is what
comes from worshiping false gods. ADONAI has turned His wrath
against us, and my husband and sons have died in their sins. Such is the
consequence of departing from the will of ADONAI."
"Mahlon," Ruth said, "did not believe in any god."
"Nor did Killon," said I, "but he was wrong. I, in my heart, have always
worshiped Chemosh."
"Chemosh," said Ruth, "is a god of horror."
"He is the god of fertility," I said, "he gives power to Baal and Astarte."
"It is a thing of horror to sacrifice children on the altar of Chemosh," said
Ruth.
"Our priests say that only those who are deformed or brain-blemished are
acceptable to Chemosh. In this way the wisdom of Chemosh ensures that
we Moabites are sound in body and mind."
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"Nevertheless," said Ruth, "I do not want to worship a god like
Chemosh." Turning to Naiomi she said: "I would learn more of your
god."
"I will tell you both of ADONAI," Naiomi said, "but I will not have time
to tell you as much as I would like you to know, for I am drawn by
ADONAI to return to my own land and to the worship of Him in truth."
"But you must not leave us," I said. "We will take care of you here. Who
is there in Canaan who will take care of you?"
"It is ADONAI who is guiding my footsteps. Even in the midst of the
people I know here I have a great loneliness and an overwhelming desire
to return to ADONAI in my own land. I feel that I am a small part of
some great plan of ADONAI."
Naiomi made preparations for leaving Beth-peor in Moab and as she did
so she talked daily about ADONAI to Ruth and myself, although I was
little interested in these sessions of instruction as to what it meant to be a
Habiru and a worshiper of ADONAI. I was content to rest in the mercies
of Chemosh.
"On the day before her departure for Canaan she spoke to Ruth and
myself.
"I love you as daughters," she said, "but now we must part. I wish you
both a more happy wedlock than you had with my sons, and in all things I
wish you prosperity. You cannot come with me because there is much
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uncertainty for me in Canaan, but I have faith that ADONAI will provide
for me, but you must stay in your own country."
After she left, I no longer had Ruth, and when my period of mourning and
re-purification had finished I looked to the prospects for gaining another
husband.
4.
RUTH.
RUTH: It was as if I had always known that there was more to life than
the dictates of Chemosh laid down by the priests of that god.
My heart was warmed and my mind excited by what Naiomi, my mother-
in-law told me of the wonders and the deeds of ADONAI on behalf of the
people he had chosen and brought forth from the seed of Abram the
Chaldean, his son Isaac, his twelve sons, and the Children of Israel whom
He had delivered from the Pharaoh of Egypt.
ADONAI did does not permit the sacrificing of human beings, and when
Abram would have sacrificed Isaac, ADONAI stayed His hand and
provided a lamb to be sacrificed in place of Isaac.
Time and time again, Naiomi said, ADONAI's chosen people strayed
from His word and fell into sin, worshiping false gods and indulging in
sexual rituals and human sacrifice for their own pleasure.
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Such things sickened my being and I failed to understand why Orpah, my
sister-in-law could return to and indulge in such practices. Also there
were those who, sold to my people as slaves, lived and died in horrifying
conditions, and when they were of no further use they were sacrificed on
the altars of Chemosh, Baal, and Astarte. Their hearts, livers and brains
were eaten by the priests and their lower entrails used for divination.
This was a land and a people I no longer wanted to live in or with. So it
was that when Naiomi prepared to return to her own land, she told us that
we should return to the houses of our parents and that she was sure that
ADONAI would bless us for the grace we had shown her and would grant
us loving husbands
There was little she had to do to convince Orpah to remain in Moab and
there was nothing I could do to convince her that we should go to Canaan
with Naiomi.
"It would not do to leave our parents," she said. "You should not even
think of doing so."
Naiomi said: "Both of you go back to your mothers. I no longer have in
my womb sons who would become your husbands. I am too old to have
another husband and even if I had a husband and sons would you wait for
them until they grew up? I must part with you and I will not forget your
goodness to me." Saying this she began to cry.
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Orpah kissed her and said good-bye and left to return to her mother's
house and to Chemosh her god.
"Look," Naiomi said to me, "Orpah has gone and now you too must go."
But I said: "Do not press me to leave you, or to stop following you for
wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people
will be my people and ADONAI will be my God. Where you die, I will
die and there I will be buried. Nothing but death will separate me from
you."
With great weeping Naiomi enfolded me in her arms and I felt her
convulse as she held me. Then at arm's length and looking into my eyes:
"Oh, Ruth, how grateful I am. ADONAI has at this time of my sorrow
given you as a comfort to me."
We set out on our journey with our belongings in an oxcart and with one
Habiru servant named Tabitha, who had been sold to Moab and bought
as a slave by Elimelech.
We journeyed to a place called Beit-Lechem where Naiomi was known
and where our arrival caused much excitement. The women gathered
around us.
"Are you not Naiomi, wife of Elimelech who left here a dozen years
ago?"
"No longer call me Naiomi, (which means, pleasant) call me Marah,
(which means, bitter) for I went out full and have come back empty."
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They questioned her and she told them of her misfortunes and explained
who I was after which they comforted her and said that she must find her
guardian redeemer, who, as I found out later was one who had the
obligation to redeem a relative in difficulties.
It was at the beginning of the barley harvest that we arrived at Beit-
Lechem.
5.
OBED.
OBED: Ever since I was a child I wanted to know of my father because at
the time he died I was growing stronger in my mother's womb.
My mother, Ruth, when I asked questions during my childhood: "When
you are old enough to understand I will tell you of Boaz, your father."
"Is it time yet?" I would ask. "For you to tell me of my father?"
"It is not yet time," Mother would say.
"What did he look like?"
"You resemble him. You have his build and features."
"Tell me of him now."
"You must be patient; patience leads to perseverance and perseverance
brings character."
So, I learned to be patient until the time when she told me of my father,
Boaz.
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She told me of how she had come to Beit-Lechem with Naiomi my
grandmother, and of how they had nowhere to live because when
grandfather Elimelech and both my uncles died Naiomi had, through
agents sent from Moab, sold the property of Elimelech and they had
nowhere to come back to. That which she got from the sale was after the
agent had taken his commission was barely enough to pay for the rituals
said over her sons. Their business passed into the hands of their business
partners, the fathers of her son's two wives, Orpah and Ruth.
With little to live on she decided as she maintained, under the direction of
ADONAI to return to Canaan. Mother came with her and upon arriving
she sought out a relative who would have the responsibility under the
Law of redeeming Elimelech's property. The man's name was Elezar and
Naiomi and mother went to see him.
"You must understand, Obed," Mother said, "that Elezar was not a hard
hearted man, and our coming to him placed him in an embarrassing
situation. He wanted to help us but to be truly our guardian-redeemer
under the Law he would have to forsake his wife and children and marry
me in order to raise up the name of the dead family if he were to redeem
Elimelech's property.
"He said: 'Shelter I can provide for you, and for food you can glean my
fields, but I will not forsake my family whom I love in order to redeem
Elimelech's property. However, Naiomi, you have another kinsman, and I
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will speak with him and see if he is willing to be your guardian-
redeemer.'
"'Who is he?' asked Naiomi.
"'His name is Boaz, and in the meantime it might be advantageous to you
if Ruth were to glean in his fields.'
When I went to glean behind the harvesters in the fields of Boaz, the
overseer of the harvest questioned me closely discovering I was from
Moab but he did not hinder my gleaning when I told him I was gleaning
for Naiomi, the relative of Boaz.
When Boaz came to his fields he saw me and asked his overseer who I
was and after listening to what he had to say walked among the harvesters
saying to each one: 'ADONAI be with you,' and each answered:
'ADONAI bless you.'
"For two days from morning until evening I gleaned in his fields. On the
third day he came to me and said I was to glean in no other fields but his,
and I was to stay and have food with the women who were harvesting for
him.
"He had spoken to Elezar and he was now the guardian-redeemer of
Naiomi. 'Is it true,' he asked me that you have turned your back upon the
false gods of Moab and that your heart inclines towards ADONAI?'
"'It is true. ADONAI is my God.'
"'He is the only God. The Almighty.'
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"'I know that.'
"'You have also left your mother and father and have come to live among
our people. You do not look back in longing to be with them?'
"'I have no other mother but Naiomi your kinswoman.'
"'May ADONAI repay you richly for seeking refuge under His wings. I
shall proceed with the redemption of Elimelech's property and that means
that I must take you to wife. I am older than you and have never been
married. Is this agreeable to you?'
"I told him, yes, and he bought back the property of Elimelech. He had
the remains of Elimelech, Killon and Mahlon brought from Moab and he
gave them honourable burials. Me, he married with the Senate of Beit-
Lechem as witnesses and according to the Law I loosed his shoe and spat
in his face. He was a man of many kindnesses to myself and others, but a
month before you were born he died."
"Was he a brave man?" I asked mother. "Could he use a sword?"
"He could use a sword," Mother said, "but he did not live by the sword,
nor did he die by the sword. He dropped dead in his fields among the
stooks of corn. Let me give you something remember him by.
"When I asked him why I, a foreigner, had found such favour in his eyes,
he told me of the time he had tended his father, Salmon's sheep. Every
morning he would bring the sheep and goats out to pasture, and in the
evening he would bring them back to the fold. But one time a young deer
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joined the sheep and goats in the pasture and when he drove the livestock
home the young deer came with the sheep, and it went out again with
them the next morning. So it was each day and Boaz drew his father's
attention to what was happening, and his father had smiled and came to
the field to see the young deer feeding with his flocks.
"One day when Boaz brought home the flocks, Salmon said: 'Before you
water the sheep and goats, water the young deer.'
Boaz wanted to know why, for he could not understand his father's
special treatment of the young deer. His father told him that it was the
habit of sheep and goats to return after a day in the pasture and sleep in a
safe fold, but it was the habit of a deer to sleep under the stars. What has
this young deer done? It has left it's own kind and come to our flocks of
its own free will, so shall we not consider it with more affection than one
sheep added to our own flocks?
"And he said to me: 'That is why you, a stranger, a non-Habiru have
found favour in my eyes, for you have left behind your former world,
your flesh and blood, and it is my duty to ADONAI to accept you with
especial love, surpassing that which we Habiru show each other.'"
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