It needs to be established, that while the first five books of the Old Testament are primarily the writings of Moses, that as far as the Biblical edition of Moses' works are concerned, they have, since Moses' writing of them, been assembled, compiled, edited, and transcribed by others at later dates with added commentary to clarify and so forth. That Moses is the original author of the first five books of the Old Testament is an assurity, for the plates of brass of the record of the House of Joseph which Lehi obtained and carried to the promised land of America did record that the fives books of Moses were contained upon them (1 Nephi 5:11). How old the brass plates are and with whom they originated is not known other than we do know that they existed well before 600 BC, which dates well before any such Biblical manuscript text of them. Further that the Biblical books of Moses are lacking to varying extents is confirmed by the book of Moses of the Pearl of Great Price which contains additional information as Moses being its source. It is with this understanding that we begin our introduction to the Book of Ruth by first turning to the Book of Genesis.

¶ And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben•-oni: but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. (Genesis 35:16-20)

As one of these later compilers of the books of the Old Testament would transcribe, edit and make added comments within the text of the Old Testament, clarifications would be made. Such apparent ones in the previous verses are set out in brown type. Moses never did enter the promised land. Before Moses, Jacob and his family were the last to actually live in that land. And the ancient place names known to Jacob would be those Moses would have transcribed in to his abridged compilation. Later when the Israelites did return after some hundreds of years in Egypt, place names had changed and they themselves would have used different names than the origianl ones that Jacob would have used and therefore Moses, who never entered the Land did use also, The tribal lands associated with Israel's return to the land of promise where not set out until after Moses by Joshua. Ephrath was the ancient name used by Moses from Jacob's account of the place which had later been named Bethlehem when the tribes of Israel had returned and occupied the land after Moses' death. Therefore, in this editor's or compiler's commentary, he clarifies that phrase 'as her soul was in departing' meant that 'she died.' And so later readers might understand the location, the editor/compiler of the text of Moses did clarify that the place that was anciently in the days of Jacob called Ephrath by Moses' writings was actually the same as Bethlehem of that day of his compiliation and commentary. There is no intent to throw the reader off to the fact that the place was Ephrath or 'Fruitful' as is the same name and meaning of the name of Ephraim as 'Fruitful.' Ephrath being the form of the name for the place and Ephraim being the form of the name of the same word for the first son of Rachel. Nor is it hiden that this is the place of Joseph's and Benjamin's mother's burial.

Now, were as the borders of the tribes were well set out by Joshua, there were some leighways taken. The tribe of Levi had cities in all of the land area's of the 12 tribes. Jerusalem or Salem, though assigned to Benjamin actually ends up in the hands of the tribe of Judah as the City of David. and it is not much of a stretch to consider that the burial place of the mother of Joseph and Benjamin was in fact inhabited by the descendants of Rachel being Ephraim and Manasseh or the northern tribal leader, Ephraim, as it was the city of his ancestor. And Ephraim is but another name for the northern kingdom of Israel, being interchangable as the Kingdom of Ephraim, Israel or even Joseph. Put that together with the understanding the Lehi's families of Manasseh and perhaps Ishmael's families recorded in the Book of Mormon, like the family of David, did hold ancestrial lands of inheritance in the same vacinity of Ephrath/Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And one might easily suggest that Ephrath was in fact inhabited about by those of the tribe of Joseph.

This is where the commentary on the Book of Ruth becomes quite interesting as being placed in the Old Testament as a matter of record of establishing the ancestry of not only David, Jesse, and Obed, but also that of Jesus Christ, himself. For Christ's ancestral lands of original inheritance where those of his anciest David, which brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, or the land of Ephrath of Rachel's burial, to be taxed in the days of Herod. And thence the question: Were the ancestral lands which brought Christ's birth place to Ephrath those lands of Judah or the lands of one of the sons of Joseph, even Ephraim? Of course we know Christ's genetic blood line was that of Boaz a Jew and Ruth a Moabite, but what was the legally bound ancestral lines of the land of Elimelech which Obed, Jesse and David inherited to keep the legal family line of Elimelech and his son Mahlon, Ruth's first husband, alive in their ancestrial lines as Ephrathites?

Therefore, before we commence the verse by verse commentary, let it first be observed that the name Ephrathite is quite significant in the matter which we will consider. In all places of the Old Testament when one is stated to be an Ephrathite, it has reference to a descendant of Ephraim. That is except where the traditional Jewish and Christian scholars do make the word to mean differently in relation to the house of David. In the 'scholar's' surmise, they conclude that in terms of the house of David, the word Ephraphite means solely that of being a citizen of the town of Ephrath or Behtlehem. Yet Ephrath was the ancient name of the place used in the days of Jacob. A later inhabitant, such as Elimelech, Mahlon, Obed, Jesse, and David would be refered to as being of Bethlehem or Bethlehemites rather than a reference back to an outdated anceint place name. This is supported by the actual wording of the Bible not only in the Book of Ruth but in other references to Obed, Jesse and David. They do not support the concept that an Ephraphite was a citizen of Ephrath alias Bethlehem, as it makes the statements of the Bible awkward, redundant, and very clumbsly written if that where the case. The alternative, is that the word Ephraphite in the case of the House of David does in fact mean exactly the same as it does in all other Biblical references and that is being of the House of Ephraim whose father was Joseph of Egypt, son of Jacob and Rachel.

But how is that to be? How is it that David being of the blood of Boaz a Jew, could also be considered of the tribe of Ephraim. And if of both, does this not yield and answer to there being one Messiah called Messiah Ben Judah, and one Messiah being called Messiah Ben Joseph, and they both being the same Mesiah, even Christ?

Ruth 1 Deaths in Moab leave widows 1 Going back to Israel; daughters-in-law went part way 6 Orpah returned to Moab; Ruth went with Naomi 15 Call me Mara 20

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Scriptural Text [& Editorial]	Commentary & Explanation	Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
CHAPTER 1               Elimelech and family go to Moab because of famine - Marriages - Death of father and sons - Ruth the Moabitess, her husband having died, remains constant to Naomi - They come to Beth-lehem.	Naomi seeks to find Ruth a 'redeeming kinsman' who will perform according to the Law of Moses in taking Ruth to wife and to raise up seed to the dead, the house of Mahlon and Elimelech. Boaz commits to Ruth that he will perform the responsibility of the surrogate husband to her but he first has to let the nearer of kin, Peloni Almoni, of the same tribal Ephrathite clan as Manlon and Elimelech first commit to whether he will perform as the redeeming kinsman and take Ruth to wife in order to raise up seed to the dead.	Boaz has to allow Peloni Almoni the first option to redeem the tribal land of Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion. The land inheritance is to stay in the same tribal family if there is such a one to perform that duty. Boaz cannot, because Boaz, though related by maternal marriage to Elimelech, is not of the same tribal clan as is Peloni Almoni. Boaz seems to know Peloni Almoni's nature, that he may want to redeem the land to his house but that Peloni Almoni may not want to take the responsiblity of marrying Ruth.
Just as the weather phenomemom of El Nino is cyclic in nature but not predictible in precise years, the cycles of famine did visit the lands of the Israelites. It was a cyclic period of famine which caused Jacob to look to Egypt for relief. And it was just such a period of famine which took Elimelech and his family away from their ancestral lands about the tomb of mother Rachel down to the land of Moab.
1 ¶ Now it came to pass in the days when the ajudges ruleda, that there was a famineb in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojournc in the country of Moabd, he, and his wife, and his two sons.	1a when the judges ruled This is considered to be during the latter end of the rule of Judges. The rule of Judges lasted some 400 years so this would be some 300 years since Jericho and the time of Joshua and Rahab. The lands which the tribe of Benjamin had been given by Joshua has become greatly reduced over due to the near extinction of the tribe of Benjamin and King David's claiming Jerusalem and the Jews later claiming it as their own city. After the great reduction in the tribe of Benjain, Judah began to over lapped into the historical lower lands of Benjamin thus there are those of the Jewish clan living by the tomb of Rachel and the Benjaminte town called Zelzah or Zelah. The Jewish compilers of the Bible will later assign the name of Bethlehem to this town, supposing it to be the same as Ephrath and they will upon occation divided it between Bethlehemjudah and Bethlehem-Ephrath. i1. Also see on ru0413.   Famine Not uncommon ge1210, ge2601. This was because of unfaithfulness le2603, 1ki1701.   Sojourn Or live temporarily like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ge1210 linked above, ge2601, ge4601.   Moab Descendants of Lot ge1936.	1a Judg. 2:16; Mosiah 29:11-44
Considering the foreknowledge and eternal planning of God, is it of little wonder that even before there was a David and still in the days of the Judges that the ancestry of King David, the ancestry of Christ would have been in the process of being worked out in a manner to hide what was to be hid and to set up and disclose what was to be known and when? Now when one considered the name of Elimelech to be 'My God is King,' is it any wonder that this was not the appropriate ancestrial title for one whose legal and lawful descendant would have been King, even Christ? Then in verse one Elimelech is already stated to have been of Bethelehem. And in verse 2, it is not a matter of redunduncy when it states that Elimelech and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion were 'Ephrathites of Behtlehem. It is not saying that they are of Bethlehem of Bethlehem, it is statinging both their ancestry first being Ephrathites and then the place of their birth, Bethlehem. And as in the other Biblical uses, it is stepulating that they are of the tribe of Ephraim who was the chosen son of Joseph who was the chosen son of Jacob.
Chilion The Jews and most Traditional Christian authorities would tell you that the family of Elimelech was related to Boaz and like Boaz were descended from the tribe of Judah. They will tell you that when it speaks of family of Elimelech, Naomi, Chilion and Mahlon that they were Ephrathites of Bethlehem that the word 'Ephrathites' being used is just another name for Bethlehem. And this despite that everywhereelse in the Bible except where it references the family of David, it means Ephraimites of the tribe of Ephraim. Yet the simple truth seems to be preserved in some Old Testament Hebrew Lexisons. Here at the right is one such lexicaon entry that states that Chilion was an 'Ephraimite'. And if true of Chilion it would also be true of Mahlon and that seed of Mahlon, Obed, who was raised up unto the House of Elimelech and Mahlon according to the Law of Moses (Deut. 25:5-10). This would mean that Jesus, of the House of David, despite his 'Jewish blood, would be of the House of Joseph and of the tribe of Ephraim. The the Jews and thence the Traditional Christians follow is that set out in 1 Chronicles 5:1-1 where it states that though the 'birthright' is to be found in Joseph and his son Ephraim, the 'genealogy' kept by the Jews is to be reckoned according to the perspective that 'Judah did prevail over his brethren' likely due to the destruction and scattering of the Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim and that only the Kingdom of Judah did remain. Also king David would choose Judah over Israel/Ephraim despite the fact that Israel/Ephraim had the greater claim in David; and not just because of 10 tribes to 2 (2 Samuel 19:43).
.2  And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.  3  And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.	2 - Elimelech:   Means "My God is King." Perhaps his faithful parents were resisting the idea of human kings. Such was never God's plan.   2 - Naomi:   Means "my bleasantness" in spite of the popular idea the boys were generally preferred.   2 - Mahlon:   Means sick or to become sick or ill. Perhaps in relation to the famine or some other reason, as he father and brother, Mahlon took ill in Moab and died before having any offspring by his wife Ruth. He was Elimelech's eldest son, the son of the birthrtght. He was Ruth's first husband.   2 - Chilion:   Means pining or failing, perhaps also implying failing health. He is the seond son of Elimelech and Naomi. The Hebrew Lexicon records that he was "an Ephraimite and son of Elimelech by Naomi and either the deceased husband of Orpah or maybe Ruth (if Mahlon died first)." There is reason to consider such as Boaz assumes the properties of both Chilion and Mahlon in behalf of his first born son Obed in becoming Ruth's proxy husband and raising up 'Ephraimite seed' unto the house of Elimelech. The significant item is that the Hebrew Lexicon identifies Chilion as an Ephraimite confirming that Elimelech his father and Mahlon his brother where also Ephraimites.   2 - Ephrathites:   Ephratha was a previous name of Bethlehem thus most assert that the use of the word Ephrathites means inhabitants of Ephrath. Yet the first appearance of the word is used to mean Ephraimites of the tribe of Ephraim and it thought to mean the same here.	1a Gen. 20:10; Josh. 20:4;    b Ruth 2:20    c In Heb. a manner of address       to a certain unnamed person       as "Mr. So & So."  2a Josh. 20:4  4a Lev. 25:25    b TG Redemption  5a TG Widows    b Deut. 25:5 (5-6); TG Name
4  And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.  5  And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.	4 - Orpha Like the Arabic name meaning "ornamented richly with hair."   4 - Ruth Obviously not a Hebrew name. The meaning is uncertain.   5 - Left of An archaic use of the word. It means "bereft of," or "deprived of," or "continuing after the death of." And "left without" is okay, too.	1a Gen. 20:10; Josh. 20:4;    b Ruth 2:20    c In Heb. a manner of address       to a certain unnamed person       as "Mr. So & So."  2a Josh. 20:4  4a Lev. 25:25    b TG Redemption  5a TG Widows    b Deut. 25:5 (5-6); TG Name
.6 ¶ Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.  7  Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.  8  And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. .9  The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.	6 - Moab:  The land of Moab was east of the Dead Sea with the land of Ammon to its north and the land of Edom to its south.	1a Gen. 20:10; Josh. 20:4;    b Ruth 2:20    c In Heb. a manner of address       to a certain unnamed person       as "Mr. So & So."  2a Josh. 20:4  4a Lev. 25:25    b TG Redemption  5a TG Widows    b Deut. 25:5 (5-6); TG Name
10  And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.  11  And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?  12  Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;  13  Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.  14  And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.	-	1a Gen. 20:10; Josh. 20:4;    b Ruth 2:20    c In Heb. a manner of address       to a certain unnamed person       as "Mr. So & So."  2a Josh. 20:4  4a Lev. 25:25    b TG Redemption  5a TG Widows    b Deut. 25:5 (5-6); TG Name
.15  And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. .16  And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:  17  Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.  18  When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.  19 ¶ So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?	16 - Ruth said This is the jewel verse from the book.   19 - Moved They all came out to celebrate the return of one many of them had likely not seen for a number of  years.   19 - Is this Naomi? Likely not a matter of recognition but of in delightful anticipation of the positive response. She returned without husband or sons. See the next verses.	1a Gen. 20:10; Josh. 20:4;    b Ruth 2:20    c In Heb. a manner of address       to a certain unnamed person       as "Mr. So & So."  2a Josh. 20:4  4a Lev. 25:25    b TG Redemption  5a TG Widows    b Deut. 25:5 (5-6); TG Name
.20  And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.  21  I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?  22  So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.	-	1a Gen. 20:10; Josh. 20:4;    b Ruth 2:20    c In Heb. a manner of address       to a certain unnamed person       as "Mr. So & So."  2a Josh. 20:4  4a Lev. 25:25    b TG Redemption  5a TG Widows    b Deut. 25:5 (5-6); TG Name

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