Ruth Was A Moabite Who Would Have Arab Connections

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

      Ruth, gleaning in a farmer's field for Naomi and herself, lived  in     about 1200 BCE, 4 generations before king David was born. She was a Moabite.  Moabite, member of a West-Semitic people who lived in the highlands east of the Dead Sea (now in west-central Jordan) and flourished in the 9th century bce. They are known principally through information given in the Old Testament and from the inscription on the Moabite Stone.

Ruth, ancestor of King David, was a Moabite, possibly even the daughter of a king.   She had married Naomi's son, Mahlon during their search for food in Moab. The Judeans,  Naomi and her husband,  Elimelech and their 2 sons, Mahlon and Chilion, had left their home in Bethlehem during a famine period and had sought food in Moabite territory.  Naomi's husband and sons perished, leaving Naomi and her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth alive, living together there for several years.  They returned to Bethlehem together. It was possibly dangerous for Ruth to remain in Moab after being married to an Israelite.  She could have been a marked woman. Naomi's treatment of her must have been much better than the usual Moabite in the same position. 

Back in Bethlehem, Naomi arranged a marriage for Ruth with her cousin Boaz, a man with property.   They produced a son, Oved, who produced a son, Jesse.  Jesse and the daughter of Ithra had 8 children, with the 8th being David the shepherd, who became king of Israel in 1010 BCE to 970 BCE, a most beloved king who took over from Israel's 1st king Saul.                                       

Moab was the country next door to Israel covering what is today, Jordan.  The field of Moab was bounded by the River Heshbon in the North, and the river Zered in the South, the river Jordan and the Dead Sea to the West, and the Syrian Desert on the East. 

The Moabites were kindred to the Israelites, being traditionally descended----like the Ammonites-----from Lot, who was Abraham's nephew, being the son of Abraham's brother, Haran.  Lot had even joined Abraham on his trek to Canaan, parting company only when each's shepherds fought each other during their duties.(Gen.19:37). 

The Moabite language was very similar (as Moabites were related the Israelites),  to biblical Hebrew.  They settled in their land which had been captured from the Rephaim (Deut.2:10-11) and(Gen.14:5). Some Rephaim settled near Jerusalem in the Valley of Rephaim.  ancient giants reported in the Old Testament to have flourished in Canaan and its vicinity prior to the Hebrews..  

Moses  gave the land east of the Jordan to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, as well as half of the tribe of Manassah, on condition that they wage battle ahead of the other troops. Being Moses died outside Canaan, he had to do this before seeing the land, or Joshua was the one they made the deal with.    

During the Exodus with Moses, part of Transjordan came under the rule of the Amorite monarch, Sihon, who had taken it away from the Moabites (Num.21:21) but after Sihon's defeat by the Israelites after refusing them passage across his territory, the land, Transjordan,  was occupied by the Israelites and became an object of contention between Israel, Moab, and Ammon.  The land was then partitioned between the tribes of Reuben and Gad.  

The Moabites were divided into small family tribes, then later united into a single kingdom, and it was their 2nd ruler, King Balak of Moab, who summoned Balaam, to curse the Israelites.  The curse was turned into a blessing, instead. (Num. 22-23)

                              King Eglon of Moab

When the Moabite king Eglon ruled, he extended their territory to the Jericho region, and this lasted until Eglon was killed by Ehud, one of the judges from the tribe of Benjamin.  He saved Israel from the oppression of Eglon. (Judg.3).  Eglon and the Amalekites had conquered parts of Israelite territory.  Ehud had to be cunning to kill Eglon.  Talmudic legend says that Eglon was the father of Ruth. 

Ironic as it sounds, it is David who wound up conquering Moab (II Sam.8:2) which remained under the suzerainty of the Northern Kingdom down to the rebellion of Mesha, King of Moab (II Kings 1:1) (Moabite Stone).               

 King Mesha of Moab, who lived in the 9th century BCE, was at first a tributary to the House of Omri, king of Israel 887-876 BCE), and had exploited Israel's weakness after the death of King Ahab, son of Omri (876-853 BCE) ,  to throw off her suzerainty.  King Jehoram of Israel( 850-843 BCE) , in consort with King Jehoshaphat of Judah (874-850 BCE)  and the king of Edom also of Semitic origins being descendents of Esau, also called Idumea, or Mt. Seir, hunters,  invaded Moab. 

According to the Tanakh, their campaign was successful until they besieged the capital Kir-hareseth, whereupon Mesha sacrificed his eldest son, after which the invading armies retreated, for uncertain reasons (II kings 3).  The Bible describes how King Mesha of Moab sacrificed his crown prince to avert a military disaster (2 Kings 3:27).  Human Sacrifice was his insurance policy of winning, so they thought.   

King Ahaz of Judah (735-720 BCE)  sacrificed his son in pagan fashion (2 Kings 16:3).   2 Kings 16:3 records that Ahaz offered his son by fire to Moloch (or made his son pass through fire), a practice condemned by Leviticus 18:21. The words may refer to a ceremony of purification or a sacrificial offering. The account in 2 Chronicles 28:3 refers to sons (plural).           

Mesha exploited the opportunity to regain the land he had lost and even captured the territory of Reuben and part of Gad's land.  His own account of his victories is inscribed on the Moabite Stone, also called the Meshsa Stele.    

In the reign of King Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria (745-726 BCE), (Moab became an Assyrian province.  Remember that the Assyrians had attacked Israel in 721 BCE and had carried off the best of the population.  

During the Persian Period (The Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, lasted from approximately 559 B.C.E. to 331 B.C.E. At its height, it encompassed the areas of modern-day Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan., of the Babylonian Conquest and Cyrus (538 BCE-after death of Mohammad 620 CE)  Arabs penetrated the country and assimilated with the inhabitants.  Moab was conquered by the Hasmoneans of Judah in 164 BCE but was later incorporated by the Romans into Arabia. Jerusalem had been taken by the Syrians after a long siege and Judea had become a Seleucid  province (Hellenistic royal dynasty, one of Alexander the Great's generals.)  

The Torah  forbids intermarriage with a Moabite (Deut. 23-4).  The Talmud interpreted this as referring only to males and the prohibition was abolished in the Mishnaic Period.  Ruth, after all, was a Moabite, and King Eglon could have been her father.    From Ruth to David was 4 generations.  David did carry some Moabite genes.  You see, there are corrections happening to our sacred writing as time alters our perspectives if needed.  

Resource:

Tanakh, Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4807162/jewish/How-Two-and-a-Half-Tribes-Ended-Up-Over-the-Jordan.htm