My Book Of Ruth

PEN/Hemingway Award Winner: An “enthralling” novel of a woman trapped within a tragically dysfunctional family (Entertainment Weekly). From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Excellent Lombards and A Map of the World, this is “an extraordinary story of a family’s disintegration [that] will be compared to Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres” (People). It follows Ruth Grey, a young woman in a tiny Illinois farm town, who has lost her father to World War II, and constantly faces her unhappy mother’s wrath—when she isn’t being ignored in favor of her math-prodigy brother. As Ruth navigates her lonely life, she strives to find happiness and pleasure where she can, but the world may conspire to defeat her. “A sly and wistful, if harrowing, human comedy . . . [An] original voice in fiction and one well worth listening to.” —The Boston Sunday Globe “Unforgettably, beat by beat, Hamilton maps the best and worst of the human heart and all the mysterious, uncharted country in between.” —Kirkus Reviews “Hamilton’s story builds to a shocking crescendo. Her small-town characters are as appealingly offbeat and brushed with grace as any found in Alice Hoffman’s or Anne Tyler’s novels.” —Glamour

The ancient book of Ruth speaks into today's world with astonishing relevance. In four short episodes, readers encounter refugees, undocumented immigrants, poverty, hunger, women's rights, male power and privilege, discrimination, and injustice. In Finding God in the Margins, Carolyn Custis James reveals how the book of Ruth is about God, the questions that surface when life falls apart, and how God reaches into the margins and chooses two totally marginalized women who, in the eyes of the patriarchal culture, are zeros. Against the backdrop of disturbing issues in today's world, this bracing narrative puts on display a radical gospel way of living together as human beings that shouts the Kingdom of God, foreshadows Jesus' gospel, and raises the bar for men and women, then and now.

The Book of Ruth is one of the most appealing to modern biblical interpreters, touching as it does on so many subjects of current concern: the emergence of female equality, the significance of legal evolvement, the acceptance of the outsider, to name a few. Benjamin Segal, author of earlier biblical commentaries (on the Song of Songs, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes,) here undertakes the difficult and controversial task of deciphering the original literary import of this exciting engaging book. Following a verse- by- verse commentary, this volume offers a new overview of the Book of Ruth, framed as: a series of revolutionary changes described via a once-upon-a-time ideal:, a former time when all seemed perfect, if only for a moment. At that time and place, women assumed an equal role in societal leadership, foreigners were to be acceptedwelcomed, historical precedents represented faults to be overcome (notrather than permanent stains), the law bent yielded to humane societal concerns , kindness was rewarded, and God' s will was carried out by men and women. Rabbi Segals suggests that in each case the book text itself indicates that change did not endure. As is true in idealistic literatures of other societies, Every two steps forward brought one step back (as is the case in idealistic literatures of other societies). However, biblical tradition would never be the same, as a glimpse of the ideal moment became a permanent cultural inheritance. Historical idyll became ongoing challenge. This commentary is an invitation to the reader to reenter the dialogue between modernity and ideals.

Traditionally, the Book of Ruth is viewed as a beautiful love story between Ruth and Boaz. But if you dig deeper, you'll find startling revelations---that God makes much of broken lives, he calls men and women to serve him together, and he's counting on his daughters to build his kingdom. Now in softcover.

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

Series: Pericope, 2 The Book of Ruth reads like a novel. Scholars agree on the literary virtuosity of its author, but are deeply divided about the way she or he has structured the work. For the first time ever, The Structure of the Book of Ruth makes use of hitherto neglected evidence from ancient Hebrew, Greek, Syriac and Latin manuscripts in an attempt to create a more objective basis for discussions about the book’s structure. This type of structural analysis is a powerful new tool in the hands of Bible scholars. Structural irregularities appear to elucidate the redactional history of the Book of Ruth. Structural breaks and links appear to function as markers indicating a certain understanding of the text to the exclusion of other possibilities. The question of divine justice comes out as the central theme of the book. Is it justified to accuse God of injustice, as Naomi did? The time when this problem was most virulent was the exilic and post-exilic period. Naomi appears to stand for the old Zion, the embittered widow of Lamentations 1. Ruth is a personification of the new Zion, the bride whom her divine husband will marry again. The remarkable openness to an active role of foreigners and women in the restoration of Israel is a deliberate protest against the draconic measures of Ezra and Nehemiah against marriages with foreign women.

In the Old Testament we read God s word as it was spoken to his people Israel. Today, thousands of years later, we hear in these thirty-nine books his inspired and authoritative message for us. These twin convictions, shared by all of the contributors to The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, define the goal of this ambitious series of commentaries. For those many modern readers who find the Old Testament to be strange and foreign soil, the NICOT series serves as an authoritative guide bridging the cultural gap between today s world and the world of ancient Israel. Each NICOT volume aims to help us hear God s word as clearly as possible. Scholars, pastors, and serious Bible students will welcome the fresh light that this commentary series casts on ancient yet familiar biblical texts. The contributors apply their proven scholarly expertise and wide experience as teachers to illumine our understanding of the Old Testament. As gifted writers, they present the results of the best recent research in an interesting manner. Each commentary opens with an introduction to the biblical book, looking especially at questions concerning its background, authorship, date, purpose, structure, and theology. A select bibliography also points readers to resources for their own study. The author s own translation from the original Hebrew forms the basis of the commentary proper. Verse-by-verse comments nicely balance in-depth discussions of technical matters textual criticism, critical problems, and so on with exposition of the biblical writer s theology and its implications for the life of faith today.