Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19
Isaiah 54:1-10
Like much of the Book of Deuteronomy, this section jumps around to a lot of subjects. We have laws regarding what to do with a captured war bride; the infamous Rebellious Son who Ought to be Stoned; the evils of cross-dressing; finding a bird's nest; falsely accusing your ex; charging interest -- all sorts of stuff. But I noticed that some of the laws given in this section touch on on things relevant to the Book of Ruth, which I posted about in my "Ones You Didn't Hear" series [/Shameless Self-Promotion].
So yes, in a way this is cheating. But what the hey; let's take another look at those parts of Ruth illuminated by these passages in our reading for this week.
To start with, we have this passage:
No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation.
No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation. (Deut. 23:2-3 NIV)
You might recall from the Book of Numbers that when the Israelites approached the Promised Land, King Balak of Moab hired Balaam, the Rent-a-Seer, to curse them, (it didn't work); and then sent a bunch of horny Moabite girls to seduce the Men of Israel, (okay, that one actually worked; but it didn't really help Balak much). Moses, or whoever wrote the book of Deuteronomy, was still pissed about this, and so utters this malediction against Moab.
Yes, I know it's generally believed that the book wasn't written by Moses, but was compiled much later during the reign of King Josiah; but the vehemence of this prohibition to me speaks of a long-held grudge; if not the acts of King Balak, then more recent acts by Moab which the writer is retroactively blaming on Balak.
My Study Bible suggests that the "ten generations" is a figurative way of saying "forever", since the number 10 is frequently used in Scriptures as a symbol of completeness. Either way, it's a long time.
Nonetheless, in the Book of Ruth, we see Ruth, a Moabitess, marrying into the family of Boaz, of the tribe of Judah; and far from their descendants being barred from the Assembly of the Lord, their great-grandson, David, becomes King of Israel. How'd they work that out?
Perhaps this prohibition was indeed an invention of later writers at the time of Josiah and the rationale about the wicked king of Moab was a bit of retroactive continuity. Or perhaps such a prohibition had existed in the body of the Law dating back to Moses which the Josiah-era redactors compiled into Deuteronomy, but it had been overlooked during the lawless period of the Judges. Or perhaps -- and this is getting really hair-splitting -- Ruth didn't technically count as a Moabitess.
Okay. Follow my reasoning. Ruth, the Moabitess, married Mahlon, the son of Elimelech and Naomi. Any descendant Ruth and Mahlon had, would have been excluded from the assembly, right? But her husband died before they had any children. Ruth, however, is now the widow of Mahlon, son of Elimelech of the tribe of Judah; and therefore an Israelite by marriage, so to speak, and so her Moabite ancestry doesn't count.
That's awfully convoluted. Perhaps it would be easier to just say that the Deuteronomy 23:3 prohibition only applies to the offspring of male Moabites and not the children of female ones. Phineas wouldn't approve of letting the Moabitesses off that easy, but we left him back in Numbers chapter 25; don't pay him any mind.
In chapter 24 of Deuteronomy, we get several laws touching upon the poor, upon widows and orphans, and upon the resident alien; of which Ruth was all three. Verses 19-20 are a restatement and elaboration on Leviticus 19:9-10
When you are harvesting in your field, and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deut. 24:19)
The idea was to leave a little bit -- whether grain in the field, olives on the tree or grapes in the vineyard -- for these needy ones. This law, along with Boaz's generous interpretation of it, was how Ruth was able to support Naomi and herself.
Some of the surrounding verses echo similar themes. When extending a loan to another person, don't take advantage of his collateral (v. 10-13). Pay your hired men promptly, because they need the money (v.14). Do not deprive the alien or the orphan of justice (v. 17). Repeatedly the writer drives home the reason: Because, he says, you were once slaves in Egypt, it gives you a special obligation to show mercy and compassion on the poor and the strangers in your own land.
One verse that struck me as a kid and stayed with me was chapter 25:4: "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading on the grain." Farmers used oxen walking over the harvested grain to break open the seed hulls so that the grain could be separated from the chaff. A stingy farmer would put a muzzle on the ox so that i wouldn't eat into his profits; be here, as in the harvesting passage, the writer insists that the framer has an obligation beyond just squeezing each shekel until it squeaks. He has an duty to treat his hired hands, his poor neighbors and even his livestock justly and humanely.
Towards the end of this week's reading, chapter 25 verses 5-6), we get a section on the Levirite Law, regarding the situation where a married man dies without a son. In order to carry on the man's family name and to provide for his widow, the man's brother is required to take the widow as his own wife in his brother's name.
The shaming ritual described in Deuteronomy 25:7-10, for if the brother refuses to do this, seems to echo the piece of business Boaz performs in Ruth 4:7-8. In the case of the story in Ruth, however, Boaz doesn't want to humiliate his unnamed kinsman -- he wants to marry Ruth himself -- so he makes following the forms as painless for the guy as possible.