RUTH CHAPTER 1 - 4

Jude Mon 06 May 2013, 02:00

RUTH

The book of Ruth, despite its brevity, is an epic. The books of Moses and those associated with him, Joshua, the Judges, and the grand book of the sometime teacher of Moses, Enoch, have all reached their climax and become silent, waiting for the next great book of revelation, the Zabur, the revelation of David. The book of Ruth introduces the books of David.

An epic is the story of the ancestry of kings and the origins of dynasties as descended from the gods and heroes. Such grand tomes are found around the world. The book of Ruth is an epic of contrast, a unique story of origins, not in the exploits of great men of fame, but in the tenacious faithfulness of foreign women. The three foreign women in David’s ancestry, who climax in the book of Ruth, are Thamar, the Canaanite wife of the sons of Judah, Rahab, the “harlot” of Jericho, and Ruth the Moabitess, the heroine of this story.

Thamar was also an object of redemption, and though undesired by the sons of Judah, she went to her own extraordinary lengths to produce a child of promise, the heir to the name of redemption. Rahab, though probably a virtuous inn-keeper rather than a harlot, was a Canaanite, one of the enemy, who became a progenitor of David. She too was a heroine, as she saved not only her whole family, but was instrumental in opening the promised land to the people of Israel. Ruth is the last of this trinity of heroines, the divine ancestry of David, whose epic so clearly condemns human pride and the glory of human kingship.

The legislated customs mentioned in the book were already quaint and outdated when the book was written. The taking off of the sandal, the lying at the feet of the redeemer, and the night-time harvest celebration had all disappeared by the time the courtly chronicler was commissioned to produce the royal epic of the line of David.

RUTH 1

1 It came to pass now, in the days
When judges ruled, there was a phase
Of famine in the land. A man
Of Bethlehem in Judah ran
To live in Moab’s land, both he
And his wife and his two sons flee.
2 The man’s name was Elimelech,
Naomi his wife, on the trek,
And the names of his two sons were
Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites
Of Bethlehem in Judah-shire.
And they went up for appetites
To the country of Moab and
Remained there to live in the land.

In practice promised land’s a place where one
May live as long as there is bread and fun.
But soon as famine hits the spot the world
Of roots and promises comes all uncurled.
It’s one thing to proclaim with tearful eye
“Next year Jerusalem” to satisfy
The rite of blessèd night, but quite another
To stay where want threatens both child and mother.
The earth’s in flux, there are no roots to tell,
And so genetic code comes round to dwell
Among the heathen temples, plain and dell.
Beloved, I am a stranger in the land
No matter where I go I am unclanned
To find the straightened gate, the chaff unfanned.

3 Naomi’s husband died, it seems,
Elimelech did, in extremes
She was left, and her two sons’ teams.
4 Now they took wives of the women
Of Moab: the name of one then
Was Orpah, and the other’s name
Was Ruth. And they lived there the same
About ten years. 5 Then both the sons
Mahlon and Chilion also died,
So the woman survived her sons
And her husband also beside.

Naomi is the name of pleasantness,
Abundances of blessing to excess.
And yet whose name gives hinting and a guess
Of the three known abundances that You
Give in Yourself, in prophets and the crew
Of Your appointed on the earth, her fate
Was to lose at least three that in her state
Were what she loved above all on the earth.
She was left with only daughters-in-law,
Which usually is not much better than dearth,
At least in mother’s eyes whose son’s her claw.
Bless me, Beloved, not with names’ prophecy,
Nor with the promises of future glee,
But with You in present eternity.

6 Then she arose with her daughters-
In-law that without her own fers
She might return from the country
Of Moab, for she’d faithfully
Heard in the country of Moab
That YHWH had given His folk a dab
Of bread. 7 Therefore she went out from
The place into which she had come,
And both her daughters-in-law too,
And they went on their way and drew
Near to the country of Judah.
8 Naomi told daughters-in-law,
“Go, return to your mother’s house.
YHWH deal well with you, as with spouse
Now dead and me you both have dealt.
9 “YHWH grant that you may find your rest,
Each in her husband’s house at best.”
Then she kissed them, and as they felt
They lifted up voices and wept.
10 And they said to her whom they kept,
“Surely we will return with you
To your people, for you’ve been true.”

This seems to be a literary license,
Dressed up and set out with fine words and spicence.
I understand the rare case comes around
When mother-in-law finds by duty bound
A daughter-in-law that will show her face
To satisfaction of the human race.
But two in one family is stretching it
Beyond believable to my poor wit.
Beloved, I take Your word and stand admonished
For unbelief arising when astonished.
Reality is stranger than the view
I get through many myths I think are true,
And every morning’s miracle anew
Turns dreams and visions into something true.

11 Naomi said “Turn back, my daughters,
Why will you go over the waters
With me? Have I still sons in womb,
To be your husbands in their room?
12 “Turn back, my daughters, go, for I
Am too old to have by and by
A husband. If I should say I
Have hope, if I should have tonight
A husband and also bear wight
Sons, 13 “would you wait for them till they
Were grown? Would you restrain and stay
From having husbands? No, my daughters,
It grieves me much to tears and waters
For your sakes that the hand of YHWH
Has gone out against my curfew!”

In those days children were conceived it seems
In evening just before the start of dreams.
The husband bears upon the wife when dark
Invades the life and sets to sleep the lark.
They had not yet invented minidress
Whereby the one who wants, she will confess,
A man in torpid afternoon before
The sun sends shadows out across the door,
Entices with a well-turned thigh instead
Of well-turned heel to get a man in bed.
So that explains Naomi’s cryptic word.
Beloved, I am a man whose heart is stirred
By reason, even in the mouth of one
Well-covered by a veil from burning sun.

14 They lifted up their voices and
Wept again, and Orpah took hand
And kissed her mother-in-law, but
Ruth clung to her for which or what.

Each morning You urge me as Naomi
Did once to her two daughters for to flee
Back to Moab and to the company
Of all the lovely gods of rock and tree.
As she did half in sorrow, half in duty,
You turn me back with the new morning’s beauty,
Not daring to hope I might come with You,
Who offer nothing of wealth nor the view
Of happiness. And more than likely I
Give quick lip service to remembrance shy
For a moment or hour, then make my way
Into rush of gods’ and goddesses’ sway.
Beloved, let me choose now for this whole day
To cling to Your love and cling without pay.

15 She said “Look, your sister-in-law
Has gone back to her people’s craw
And to her rulers, go after
Your sister-in-law, as it were.”

Even the blessed and true can give advice
To return to idolatry and vice.
In fact that’s what is done in every pulpit
Where is elected grace alone for culprit,
Which is no grace at all, because it makes
So much of human sacrifice at stakes.
Grace of idolatry is that the speaker
Is free to trample on the brother weaker,
And those well trampled have the grace to live
Above their sorrows and learn to forgive.
Beloved, let me live without idol’s share
And so have nothing to forgive or dare
To take the morsel of the one I can.
Give me the grace to be free as a man.

16 But Ruth said “Entreat me not to
Leave you, and turn back with the few
From following after you, for
Wherever you go on before,
There I will go, and where you live,
There I will live, though fugitive,
Your people shall be my folk then,
And your rulers mine among men.
17 Where you die, I will die, and there
Will I be buried for my share.
YHWH do so to me, more also,
If aught but death part us below.”
18 When she saw how she had decided
To go with her whate’er betided,
She stopped trying to change her mot.

Lovely determinedness, the thing You pride
In the Suura of Patience in the Tide
Of Time, is on the lips of Ruth, one caught
Between her own folk and the stranger sought,
As I myself in all my life and plot.
Such stepping out has just one motive I
Know well because of the thing that I ply,
To freedom from the popular assent,
And liberty alone given to repent.
I must be free of every word beware
To find You on my breath and everywhere.
Who is enshackled with both love and faith
Despite Your presence must turn to the wraith.
Beloved, I shiver in Your freshing air.

19 Now the two of them went until
They arrived at Bethlehem’s hill.
It happened, when they had arrived
In Bethlehem to where they strived,
That all the city was excited
Because they had been reunited,
And the women said “Is this now
Naomi?” 20 But she said somehow
To them, “Do not call me by name
Naomi, pleasantness for fame,
But call me Mara just the same,
For the Almighty’s dealt with me
In every way most bitterly.
21 “I went out full, and YHWH has brought
Me home again, and yet with naught.
Why do you call me Naomi,
Since YHWH testified against me,
And the Almighty afflicts me?”

This is not high-flown philosophy’s voice
That speaks in Naomi by word and choice.
It is the earth-bound pain of loss of love
Of husband and of sons against the shove
Of having fled to save life, refugee
Who found only death in the flight to be.
You are to us, all humankind, like mother
Against whom we kick when we’re found to smother
In pain and disappointment, Almighty.
And yet I cannot understand her plea,
Who went out empty, though with high hopes charged
To come back without hope, and yet enlarged.
There is no full but is illusion’s plate
And there’s no empty where You set the rate.

22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth
The Moabitess, who forsooth
Was her daughter-in-law with her,
Who came back from Moab’s land’s spur.
And they came to Bethlehem at
The start of barley harvest’s pat.

RUTH 2

1 A kinsman of Naomi’s late
There was a man of great estate,
Of family of Elimelech.
His name was Boaz for the beck.
2 So Ruth the Moabitess said
To Naomi, “Please to find bread
Let me go to the field, and glean
Ears of corn after him who’s seen
Me in favour.” She said to her,
“Go then, my daughter happier.”
3 So she left, went and gleaned the field
After the reapers of its yield.
And she happened to come to part
Of the field that was Boaz’ chart,
Who was of Elimelech’s shield.

Beloved, the stranger in the land, the poor
And widow woman still has somewhat sure,
The thought that friend might let her glean the field,
One who might see her with favour and yield.
As I look out upon the wholesome past
Of my own life in what there’s been to last,
I see no such a patron in whose favour
I have come to glean in the field to waver.
I thank You, my Beloved, that their is none
But You alone to succour me when done.
There is no owner of the fields about
To let me in to glean, but with a shout
I should be sent from every one I try.
I thank You that there’s only You and I.

4 Now indeed, Boaz came out from
Bethlehem, and said to those come
To reap, “YHWH be with you!” And they
Answered him, “YHWH bless you today!”

Today in every favoured kind of way
The faithful say “Peace on you” or to sway
The multitude “Shalom” or then “Salaam,”
And so we hope to live in peace and calm.
But here the greeting is another thing,
“YHWH with you” is the greeting word of king,
And the right answer is “May YHWH bless you!”
This may be ancient practice come to view.
Though both the Bible and Qur’an make fast
That Peace is the greeting spoken to last,
It seems another is archaic fare.
Beloved, be with me and bless everywhere,
And that’s as close as peace in any case
That can be found here by the human race.

Listen, Beloved, to my scholar’s instinct
To explain how the greeting that once blinked
Has become lost to humankind and speech.
At some point readers thought Your law to teach
That Your name must not be said in the breach,
But respect guiding heart and tongue would tell
Us to replace it with another spell.
This ancient greeting and its answer too
Contain the very sacred name of YHWH.
That’s probably why Hebrews started out
To say peace when they came to turn about.
And so it came into St. James’s scroll,
And the Qur’an fulfilled the once set goal:
Development of respect without doubt.

5 Then Boaz said to his servant
Who was in charge of reapers’ grant,
“Whose young woman is this, I say?”
6 So the servant who was in sway
Over of the reapers answered and
Said “It is the young Moabite
Woman who came back from the land
Of Moab with Naomi’s right.
7 “And she said ‘Please let me glean and
Gather after the reapers’ hand
Among the sheaves.’ So she came and
Has continued from dawn till now,
Though she rested a little vow
Inside the house.” 8 Then Boaz said
To Ruth, “Hear me, daughter, be led,
Don’t go to glean another field,
Nor go from here, but stay well heeled
Close by my young women and steeled.
9 “Let your eyes be upon the field
Which they reap, and go after them.
Have I not said ad hominem
Not to touch you? And when you are
Thirsty, go to the vessels’ bar
And drink what the young men have drawn.”
10 So she fell on her face, upon
The ground bowed down, and said to him,
“Why have I found grace and not dim
In your eyes, that you should take note
Of me, since I’m a foreign stoat?”

The truth is simply that Boaz was not
Immune to sightly girls in human plot,
And so he raised his attention to give
The command to leave Ruth and let her live
Without approach of young men of the soil
To distract her with sex appeal from toil.
His kindness and his justice were informed
By what he saw in beauty unbestormed
In the unique curl of a foreign race.
Many men are taken by stranger’s face.
Let me too, my Beloved, ever enticed,
Follow desire to virtue intersticed
With gentleness and kindness nourished by
The hormones that boil in the loin and thigh.

11 And Boaz answered her and said,
“I’ve heard all that’s been reported
Of all you’ve done for husband’s mother
Since the death of your late and brother,
And how you have left father and
Your mother and your birthplace’ land,
And have come to a people whom
You did not know before from doom.
12 “May YHWH repay your work, and give
A full reward to you to live
By YHWH the God of Israel,
Under whose wings you’ve come for cell
Of refuge.” 13 Then she said “Let me
Find favour in your sight to be,
My lord, for you’ve comforted me,
Spoken to your servant kindly,
Though I’m not like one of your maids.”
14 Now Boaz told her in the shades
Of mealtime, “Come here, and eat bread,
And dip your sop in the sour spread.”
And so she sat beside the reapers,
And he handed her parched corn heapers,
And she ate and was satisfied,
And saved some of it for a snack.
15 And when she rose up to go back
And glean, Boaz commanded his
Young men, saying “Let her in whiz
Glean even among the sheaves, and
Do not reproach her from her stand.
16 “Also let corn from bundles fall
On purpose for her by the wall,
And leave it so that she may glean,
And do not rebuke her when seen.”

Ah with what jealous eye I see the path
That Ruth takes among reapers without wrath.
I too have given up my native land
And sat among the strangers and my hand
Has served the parents of my wife as planned,
And yet no one has spoken a kind word,
Much less given a dinner as preferred.
When I read in Your word the sacred tale,
I realize what miracle the veil
Reveals, since no man is kind to the stranger.
It simply is not done, though there’s no danger.
I’m thankful to live in peace though the while
May change at any moment for a smile.
I trust in You, Beloved, amid the guile.

17 So she gleaned in the field until
Evening, and then beat out the till
Of what she’d gathered, and it came
To round a barley ephah’s claim.
18 Then she took it up and went with
It to the city, where her kith,
Her mother-in-law saw what she
Had gathered. So she brought the fee
Out and gave to her what she’d saved
After she’d eaten of the braved.
19 And her mother-in-law told her,
“Where have you gleaned today in spur?
And where did you work? Blessed be he
Who took notice of you for free.”
So she told her mother-in-law
With whom she had been dealt a paw,
And said “The man’s name with whom I
Worked today is Boaz for why.”
20 Naomi said to her daughter
In law, “Blessed be he of YHWH’s stir,
Who’s not forsaken His kindness
To living and the dead’s address!”
And Naomi said to her, “This
Man’s kin of ours and not to miss.”
21 Ruth the Moabitess said “He
Also said to me, ‘You shall be
Close by my young men till they’ve done
All my harvest for work and fun.’”
22 And Naomi said to Ruth her
Daughter-in-law, “It’s good infer,
My daughter, that you go out by
His young women, that folk not spy
You in another field.” 23 So she
Stayed close by the young women free
Of Boaz, to glean till the end
Of barley harvest to contend
And wheat harvest, and she lived by
Her mother-in-law and ally.

I’ve seen the women in their bright clothes bend
Among the barley harvest where they spend
The day and then a kindness for their toil
Are brought back home by tractor for the spoil.
A long day in the spring sun almost met
To summer and the end of seasons wet
Is their fate and not easy on the bone.
Even when well treated, the weary stone
Weighs heavy on the burdened back to groan.
Still every face is covered with the joy
Of chatting on together while employ
Their bodies in the harvest. I raise hat
To Ruth for diligence where she was at.
The barley is a promise of the fat.

RUTH 3

1 Then Naomi her mother-in-law
Said to her, “My daughter-in-law,
Shall I not seek security
For you, that it may truly be
Well with you? 2 “Now Boaz, whose young
Women you were with, is he not
Our relative? In fact, he’s flung
To winnow barley tonight fraught
There at the threshing floor. 3 “Therefore
Wash yourself and anoint your door,
Put on your best garment and go
Down to the threshing floor, but show
Yourself not to the man until
He has finished eating the bill
And drinking. 4 “Then it shall be, when
He lies down, that you’ll notice then
The place where he lies, and you’ll go
In, and uncover his feet slow,
And lie down, and he will tell you
Whatever it is you should do.”
5 And she said to her, “All that you
Say to me I will surely do.”

Some women are not wise in how they go
About getting what’s due them in the show,
But place in compromising situation
Both themselves and the man who is their ration.
I forgive Ruth because she took advice
From Naomi, whose word was worth in twice
That of another for her place in being
Mother-in-law. But still they should be seeing
That lying at Boas’ feet could undo them
With gossip in a town ready to shrew them.
Boas may well make of the winnowing
Of barley a feast of joy on the wing,
But still he keeps his mind upon the thing
That’s best for Ruth, and not on his own fling.

6 So she went to the threshing floor
And did according to the score
Of what her mother-in-law said.
7 And after Boaz had well fed
And drunk, and his heart full of cheer,
He went to lie down at the near
End of the heap of corn, and she
Came softly, she came quietly,
Uncovered his feet, and lay down.
8 It came with midnight on the town
The man was startled when he turned
And found a woman and unearned
Was lying at his feet. 9 And he
Said “Who are you?” and so then she
Answered, “I’m Ruth, your maidservant.
Take your maid under your cloak’s slant,
For you are a close relative.”
10 Then he said “Blessed are you to live
Of YHWH, my daughter! For you give
More kindness at the end than start,
In that you did not go apart
After young men, the poor or rich.
11 “And now, my daughter, do not pitch.
I will do for you all you wish,
For all the people of this dish
Know that you are of good virtue,
And would not uncover a shoe.

Now days the young ladies fall for rich men,
But it’s not said a virtue without wen.
The young ladies who look for sugar daddies
Gain their respect through wealth and not through laddies.
Who’s to say Ruth in her total regard
For Boas did not think about the shard
Of wealth the elder man she knew possessed?
That is a thing left unsaid and unguessed.
Beloved, I come to You in poverty,
Forgetting that the world is Yours in fee,
Thinking our hearth together will be small
And blessed with little in the bin and stall.
But I am just as suspect as poor Ruth
Who went out looking for not wealth but truth.

12 “And it is true that I am close
In kin, but there is one more dose
Of relative closer than I.
13 “Stay this night, and in morning sky
It shall be that if he’ll perform
The duty of a close and warm
Relative for you, good, let him
Do it. But if he is not trim
To perform the duty for you,
Then I’ll perform the duty true,
For you, as YHWH lives! So lie down
Until the morning come to town.”

Take me, Beloved, to Your heart even now,
There is no other relative to bow,
There is no closer than You to my heart,
None closer than Your Self, even my part.
Take me, Beloved, to Your tent now in view
Of the midnight in quiet and in dew,
And I shall never leave when shade is past,
Nor flee into the town, nor cover cast.
Take me, Beloved, yet leave me in the shove
Of timely market, and untimely love,
And I shall wait before Your purple tent
For Your awakening, and when I’m sent,
Shall find my road across Bethlehem’s stones
Untrammelled by the lichens and their tones.

14 So she lay at his feet till morn,
And she arose before the horn
Before one could know one another.
Then he said “Do not let a brother
Know that the woman came down here
To the threshing floor, gossips fear.”
15 Also he said “Bring the shawl that
Is on you and hold it for mat.”
And when she held it, he poured out
Six measures of barley and stout,
And laid it on her. Then she went
Into the city, night far spent.
16 So when she came back to the place
Where was her mother-in-law’s face,
She said “Is that you, my daughter?”
Then she told her all that the fer
Had done for her. 17 And then she said
“These six ephahs of barley bread
He gave me, for he said to me,
‘Do not go empty-handedly
To your mother-in-law.’” 18 Then she
Said “Sit still, my daughter, until
You know how the matter fulfil,
For the man will not rest until
He’s finished today the thing’s bill.”

Six measures of the week You give to me,
As though in favour for the harlot’s fee,
Although I have not shared Your bed of glee,
But only slept at Your feet tremblingly.
Six days You give me and a grace to spare,
Unwarranted, unearned, and as my share
The spaces to the sky, the chill of air
Above a fertile earth, and some to spare.
The seventh measure is the secret done,
The Sabbath of the love that I have won
Where I in the night work beneath Your cloak
Breathed quietly until Your heart awoke
To find me, willing, bare, and without claim
But that You are to me the closest name.

RUTH 4

1 Now Boaz went up to the gate
And sat down there to stay a rate,
And indeed, the close relative
Of whom Boaz alternative
Had spoken came by. So Boaz
Said “Come aside, friend, sit and razz.”
So he came aside and sat down.
2 And he took ten men of the town,
Elders, and said “Sit down here too.”
So they sat down there not a few.
3 Then he said to the relative,
“Naomi, who’s come back to live
From the land of Moab, would sell
The piece of land which belonged well
To our brother Elimelech.
4 “And I intended then to check
With you, saying ‘Now buy it back
Before the citizens no lack
Of elders of my folk. If you
Will redeem it, redeem it true,
But if you’ll not redeem it, then
Tell me, that I may know and ken,
For no one but you will redeem
It, and I’m next after your beam.’”
And he said “I’ll redeem it.” 5 Then
Boaz said “On the day you buy
The field from hand of Naomi,
You must also buy it from Ruth
The Moabitess, wife in truth
Of the dead, to perpetuate
The name of the dead in estate.”
6 And the kinsman said “I cannot
Redeem for myself such a plot,
Lest I spoil my own heritage.
You take my right of acreage
In redemption and for yourself,
For I cannot redeem the shelf.”
7 Now this was done in former times
In Israel concerning dimes
Of redemption and the exchange,
To confirm anything in range:
One man took off his sandal and
Gave it to the other in hand,
And this made contract in the land
Of Israel. 8 Therefore the kin
Said to Boaz, “Buy stock and bin
For yourself.” So he took off his
Sandal to give him where he is.

Beloved, I am for sale it seems where death
Left me to repeat frantic shibboleth
Across bewildered borderlands of grief.
I enter the town gate to my relief
To find myself bartered and sold like beef.
Beloved take off no shoe when You see me
Return upon the banks and faithfully
Search out Your footsteps on the dawning sky.
Beloved, take off no shoe nor pass me by.
The witnesses in turbans stroke a beard
And furtively examine teeth with feared
Expressions of bored lack of interest that
Wash my raw heart into a state of flat
Unfeeling stone. I look back where You sat.

9 Boaz said to the elders and
All the people, “You are at hand
To witness this day that I’ve bought
All that was Elimelech’s lot,
And all that was Chilion’s and
Mahlon’s, and bought them from the hand
Of Naomi. 10 “Moreover, Ruth
The Moabitess, who in truth
Is widow of Mahlon, I’ve taken
As my wife, to perpetuate
The name of the dead not to waken
Through his inheritance, so that
The name of the dead may not flat
Be cut off from among his brothers
And from his gate place with the others.
And you are witnesses today.”

Sweet Christians talk of saviours and redeemers,
And here we see two such, one on the touch,
The other most reluctant to do much.
Some are redeemers, others only seemers.
Redemption is a strange thing in the tale
Of ages past, but down to earth and hale.
Redeem the brother’s wife, redeem the son
First born, the donkey too under the son,
It’s all so clear and bright in Palestine
Under the canopy of barley fine.
Only the trussed theology of late
Makes my redemption seem an obscure fate.
I am the first-born son, and so redeemed
By everything that You and I have dreamed.

11 And all the folk who came to stay
At the gate, and the elders, said
“We’re witnesses to what you read.
May YHWH make the woman who comes
To your house like Rachel, for sums
Like Leah, the two who have built
The house of Israel begilt,
And prosper you in Ephrata
For fame in Bethlehem for awe.
12 “May your house be like the house of
Perez, whom Tamar bore for love
To Judah, because the offspring
Which YHWH will give you from the spring
Of this young woman grows to sing.”

You take me home, Beloved, a bride at last
Who felt the shame of elders who had cast
Appraising eye upon the grazing sheep
Come up from Moab to Bethlehem’s keep.
You take me home, Beloved, beyond the stares
Of Bethlehem, whose hardened glance and glares
Will find a time to fasten on the bent
Form of Mary and on the shame she spent.
Now on my ears are ringing all the praise
Due to Rachel and Leah for their days
Of faithfulness in wandering toward the tent
Of Bethlehem. The joy that through me went
Becomes a shiver of fear that I might
Be empty to Your sorrow come the night.

13 Boaz took Ruth and she became
His wife, and when he made the claim
On her, YHWH gave her conception,
And then she gave birth to a son.
14 Then the women said to Naomi,
“Blessed be YHWH, who’s not left you roamy
Today without a kith or kin,
And may his name be famous in
Israel! 15 “And may he be to you
Restorer of life and a true
Nourisher of your old age too,
Because your daughter-in-law, who
Loves you, who’s better far to you
Than seven sons, and she’s borne him.”
16 Then Naomi took the child slim
And laid him on her bosom, and
Became a nurse to him at hand.

It would be interesting to know if any
Miraculous occurrence for a penny
Happened in those sweet golden days of yore,
When life was pastoral and folk were more
Interested in their crops than oil and war.
Did milk come from that breast Naomi lent?
No doubt she was still young as people went
In those days, though a grandmother unspent.
Beloved, I’ve heard of unexpected milk,
I’ve listened to whisperings of that ilk,
And I am ready to believe the thing,
Though not as action of a God or king,
But rather the result of her great love,
And that’s the miracle I’m thinking of.

17 Also the neighbour women gave
Him a name, saying “There’s a grave
Son born to Naomi.” And they
Called his name Obed. In the way
He is the father of Jesse,
The father of David to see.
18 This is the genealogy
Of Perez: for Perez begot
Hezron, 19 Hezron produced the lot
Of Ram, and Ram begot a son
Amminadab by name when done,
20 Amminadab produced Nahshon,
And then Nahshon produced Salmon,
21 Salmon produced Boaz, and he
Boaz produced Obed, 22 and see
Then Obed has produced Jesse,
And Jesse produced David wee.

Most kings hire poets to make up the grand
Legends of epic that fill every land
With pride their king descended from the great
Gods and heroes that once walked their estate.
But David’s epic tells the story of
Foreign women whose folly fed their love,
Rahab and Tamar with their hanging cord
Of scarlet to assail attacking horde,
And Ruth who clings to Naomi until
The dawn light filters through the threshing mill.
The weak look to the strong to bolster up
Their reign, while You and David take the cup
Of the weakest of weak and show the world
A brief and poignant epic, one impearled.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

To purchase the books, please go to:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-mcelwain/the-beloved-and-i-genesis-to-maccabees/paperback/product-20136835.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-mcelwain/the-beloved-and-i-job-to-revelation/paperback/product-20050862.html