Like the short story that gave structure to the book of Job, so the book of Ruth is considered to be a finely honed literary piece, often called a novella. It is meant to exhibit exemplary behavior. Just as Job proved faithful through good fortune and ill, so the characters in the book of Ruth are equally laudatory.

The story starts with an Israelite family in the time of the judges. (This historical setting becomes the reason that Ruth was put right after the book of Judges in the Septuagint.) This family consists of Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. There is a famine in Judah, but they hear that there is bread in Moab, so they seek refuge there. While there, Elimelech dies, but the sons marry Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. Both marriages apparently remai…