A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Saturday, June 6, 2026

Meditation 6: Ruth

By the Seine, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paris, May-July 1887

In Jewish tradition, the Book of Ruth has always had special importance, especially because it foretells the coming of King David (4:13-22). Ruth also presents us with a wonderful story of hospitality. We have the example of Naomi, a widow living with her two sons and their wives. After the sons died, Ruth, one of Naomi’s daughters-in-law, decided to follow her and live with her. Ruth expressed her love for Naomi with moving words: “where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (1:16).

What incredible hospitality the Israelite Naomi must have shown to her Moabite daughters-in-law that they were willing to leave their homeland of Moab to go to Israel with their mother-in-law. At the beginning, both of Naomi’s daughters-in-law wished to follow her (1:10). It took effort for Naomi to persuade one of her daughters-in-law to stay back, but Ruth couldn’t be persuaded.

Naomi’s hospitality remains mostly implicit in the narrative, but we can get a sense of what a warm and loving home she must have made for her daughters-in-law that they would want to follow her to a foreign country. 

Naomi’s is not the only hospitality we encounter in the Book of Ruth. We also have the example of Boaz, who facilitated Ruth getting abundant barley to take back home with her and share with Naomi, and Boaz ensured that Ruth was safe in his fields. Boaz demonstrated his hospitality by instructing his men to make certain Ruth was able to glean barley, and also to make sure she was guarded and protected so that no harm would befall her. Eventually, Boaz married Ruth, and their descendants include King David, and thus Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah. 

The Book of Ruth thus presents us with two moving images of hospitality. The one is a mother-in-law who creates a home environment so warm and attractive that her daughters-in-law wish to follow her to a foreign land rather than part from her and stay in the only land they’ve ever known. The other is the example of the protection and provision of a foreigner. Boaz, of the Israelite tribe of Judah, protects and provides for Ruth, a Moabite. We, too, should strive to make our homes warm and attractive, so that those who stay with us find hospitality there. We, too, should protect and take care of the foreigner and the needy in our midst.  

Lord, help those who hunger and thirst find the sustenance they need. Protect those in need of your protection. Help us be agents of your love in the world, providing food for the hungry and shelter for those who go without. Help us transform our homes into warm oases of hospitality.

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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