An Ambiguous Tale

An Ambiguous Tale Comparative commentary by Heather Macumber Cite Share Show Bible Passage Read by Ben Quash Ruth begins with ‘In the days when the judges ruled’, recalling a narrative setting before the time of David. Readers familiar with Judges recognize that this period of Israel’s history was marked by violence and uncertainty, especially for women (Judges 19–21). Though written in the post-exilic period, Ruth is set within this troubled past, focusing on a tale of three vulnerable women. Whether through death or migration, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah are left untethered from societal structures. The narrator provides little backstory for the book’s characters. Naomi’s husband Elimelech appears briefly in the text before he dies in Moab, and the reader is left in the dark as to the cause of his death or any details to flesh out his character. Even Naomi’s sons Mahlon and Chilion are treated as a homogenous unit without any depth, and the reader is unaware until the end of Ruth to whom they are married. A similar ambiguity extends to Ruth and Orpah, both Moabite women, as readers are given little background regarding their families, traditions, and experiences. Finally, Naomi remains an enigma in respect of her character and motivations, despite her speeches in chapter one. Traditionally, it is assumed that the devotion of Ruth is reciprocated by Naomi, but her unsettling silence after Ruth’s speech leaves this open to question (Ruth 1:18). The Wedding Dress prompts a similar exercise in interpretation since nothing is known of the context of this weeping woman. Though one might assume the missing subject is a husband or a fiancé, it is also possible that the woman in the painting is a mother, daughter, or sister grieving the loss of a bride who will never wear her wedding dress. A poignant quality pervades the scene as the focus is on the woman left behind rather than the identity of the one she has lost. Moreover, it is easy to sentimentalize the woman in the painting, but (as in the book of Ruth) the real cause of her grief might be a lack or loss of material security rather than romantic heartbreak. Marc Chagall’s lithograph stands out for the unity apparent between the three women; their bond is tangible as they are linked together both physically and by shared trauma. Phyllis Trible notes this cohesion in the biblical text, ‘as childless widows, these three are one’ (Trible 1978: 169). Their loyalty is also reflected in Orpah and Ruth’s textual refusal to leave Naomi, ‘Surely with you, we will return to your people’ (Ruth 1:10). Despite differences in age and ethnicity, Naomi and her daughters-in-law find their narratives intertwined as they grapple with the sorrow of the past and the uncertainty of the future. Each woman has crossed borders, merging her identity with another culture. This entails, for Naomi, settling in Moab for over ten years, while Ruth and Orpah must adapt to living with an Israelite family as Moabite women. Though some commentators note the bias against Moabites elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, such an overt negative evaluation is missing from Ruth (Koosed 2011: 32). The beginning of Ruth is marked by famine, while the end of the chapter coincides with the barley harvest, and each woman is similarly transformed throughout the course of the narrative (Linafelt 1999: 18). Though Naomi returns to her homeland with Ruth, she comes back in much-reduced circumstances, forced to glean for subsistence. This fleeting moment of unity captured by Chagall is bittersweet as the family once again faces separation and loss. Absence is inscribed upon the book of Ruth, from the loss of a homeland, the death of family, and the geographical separation of loved ones. John Warrington Wood’s sculpture Ruth and Naomi highlights the intimate relationship between these two women; however, the absence of other characters is palpable. Most notably, Warrington Wood omits Orpah from his representation, and introduces a level of ambivalence in Naomi’s half-hearted return of Ruth’s embrace. She is already moving away from the younger woman as she prepares to leave for Bethlehem. The indecipherability of Naomi’s attitude is similarly present in the biblical text where Naomi responds to the townswomen, ‘I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty’ (Ruth 1:21a). Naomi’s words seem particularly harsh considering the presence of Ruth at her side during this declaration, leaving the reader to wonder whether Ruth is seen as a blessing or a burden. The book of Ruth is less a quaint love story than an ambiguous text that resists precise meaning (Linafelt 1999: 8). There are more gaps than explanations in the stories of the characters, leaving much to the imagination of the reader. Not only do the spectres of Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion hover at the edges of the text, but the eventual fates of Orpah, Naomi, and Ruth are never fully resolved. References Koosed, Jennifer L. 2011. Gleaning Ruth: A Biblical Heroine and her Afterlives (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press) Linafelt, Tod. 1999. Ruth and Esther, Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry, XXV; XXII (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press), pp. xiii–87 Trible, Phyllis. 1978. The Rhetoric of Sexuality (Philadelphia: Fortress Press)