This week, the U.S. government announced that foreign students will not be allowed to remain in the United States if their classes move fully online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, this is only the most recent expression of what seems to be an ever-increasing anxiety about immigrants, foreigners, and people of color in the United States. From travel embargoes against majority-Muslim countries, to promises of a wall to separate the U.S. from Mexico, to confinement of Latin American refugees in camps along our southern border, this era of American history is marked by animosity toward immigrants, foreigners, and people of color.
Making Ancient Israel Great Again
For readers of the Bible, this present moment in our history might remind us of a similar sentiment evident in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Written in the 5th century BCE, Ezra and Nehemiah reflect the concerns of Jewish returnees from Exile, the descendants of those who had been forced from their homeland at the hands of the Babylonians and were now returning more than a century later.
According to the book of Ezra, as those returnees began to rebuild their society, trying to recapture what they remembered as their former greatness, they wondered why God had sent them into exile in the first place. And soon they settled on a rationale—as many nations before and since seem to do—God had sent them into exile to punish them for allowing immigrants and foreigners to live among them.
Fearing that God will punish them yet again, the community leaders declare that “the people of Israel….haven’t kept themselves separate from the peoples of the neighboring lands with their detestable practices” (Ezra 9:1). And they propose a policy solution: “Let us now make a covenant with or God to send away all these wives and their children” (Ezra 10:3). The book of Ezra ends with a list of men who have married foreign wives and a plan to send those wives and their children away (Ezra 10:16-44).
In their effort to make Israel great again, the officials passed laws to rid the land of foreigners.
The Book of Ruth as Counter-Voice
Into that historical setting comes the biblical book of Ruth. While the book is set in the time of the judges (Ruth 1:1), before the founding of the Israelite monarchy, many scholars think the book was actually written in the time of Ezra-Nehemiah to combat the anti-immigrant sentiment evident in those books.
The book of Ruth tells the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who marries into an Israelite household. Following the deaths of all the men in her family, she moves with her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem, where she seeks to make a life as a Moabite refugee in Israel.
In general, the Hebrew Bible is not kind to Moabites. It traces the origin of the Moabites to an incestuous encounter between Abraham’s nephew Lot and one of his daughters, who got her father drunk on wine in order to rape him while he slept (Genesis 19:29-38). The book of Deuteronomy forbids Moabites from joining themselves to the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:3). And the book of Ezra explicitly names Moabites as one of the peoples whose women must be expelled from the land (Ezra 9:1).
Ruth as Model Immigrant
But the book of Ruth counters these negative Israelite attitudes toward Moabites by presenting Ruth as a model immigrant. She commits herself to her mother-in-law Naomi, swearing that even death will not separate them (Ruth 1:16-17). She understands Israelite law and custom well enough to know that as a widow she can go glean in the fields during the barley harvest (Ruth 2:2-3). She works hard to feed herself and her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth 2:6-7).
By the end of the story, Ruth has proven herself to be a “woman of worth,” as recognized by all the people (Ruth 3:11). She earns the respect of the Israelite Boaz, who proposes marriage. The townswomen bless her, comparing her to the great matriarchs Rachel and Leah (Ruth 4:11-12).
This Moabite woman has shown that she can be a great asset to her Israelite neighbors. Far from the stereotyped Moabite of Israelite lore, Ruth proves herself valuable member of the community of Bethlehem.
Against the anti-immigrant perspective of Ezra-Nehemiah, the book of Ruth insists that foreigners, immigrants, and refugees—even Moabites!—can contribute to the well-being of Israelite society.
The Moabite Ancestry of David
But the book of Ruth doesn’t end there. Rather, it tells of Ruth becoming pregnant and giving birth to a child named Obed. Who becomes the father of Jesse. Who becomes the father of David. As in King David—the giant slayer—the greatest Israelite king of them all (Ruth 4:17).
While Ezra and Nehemiah plot to make Israel great again by expelling immigrants and foreigners, the book of Ruth counters that without immigrants and foreigners Israel would never have been great in the first place! Without Ruth, there would have been no David—and without David, Israel would have lacked its greatest king.
Ezra and Nehemiah see immigrants and foreigners only as threats to the community. The book of Ruth insists that immigrants and foreigners are foundational to the very greatness that Israel had every achieved. Indeed, its greatest king was 1/8th Moabite.
Ethnic purity is no goal at all.
The Book of Ruth Today
I think the book of Ruth enters into our own cultural moment in a similar way. In a time when there are forces at work seeking to scapegoat immigrants, foreigners, and people of color for all of society’s problems, the book of Ruth reminds us that immigrants, foreigners, and people of color are foundational to our history, as well.
Whatever measure of greatness we have achieved in our past, we have achieved because of immigrants, foreigners, and people of color, not in spite of them. And whatever future greatness we may hope for, we will achieve not by limiting our diversity—but by embracing it.
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