Book of Ruth

This article is about the ancient Hebrew religious text. For the 20th-century English-language novel, see The Book of Ruth (novel). For the 1960 film, see The Story of Ruth. For the 2009 film, see The Book of Ruth: Journey of Faith. For the 2017 Ozark episode, see Book of Ruth (Ozark).

Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab by William Blake, 1795

The Book of Ruth (Hebrew: מְגִלַּת רוּת, romanized: Mĕgillat Rût, lit. 'Scroll of Ruth'; one of the Five Megillot) is part of the third and final division—the "Writings" (Ketuvim)—of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). In common printed Hebrew Bible ordering, the book appears between Song of Songs and the book of Lamentations.

The book was likely written in Biblical Hebrew during the Persian period (c. 550–330 BCE). It narrates the story of Ruth, a Moabite, who follows her Judean mother-in-law, Naomi, returning to her family's ancestral town of Bethlehem, after the deaths of their husbands. Ruth's loyalty to Naomi leads to Ruth's marriage to Boaz, the family's Judahite kinsman. The two produce a son, Obed, who becomes the grandfather of Israel's King David.

In Judaism, Ruth is regarded as a paradigmatic ger (i.e., a convert to Judaism), giving both Ruth and the book particular significance for Jewish converts; rabbinic sources derive several laws of Jewish conversion from Ruth's declaration. The book is traditionally chanted during Jewish prayer services in synagogues during the pilgrimage festival of Shavuot (lit. 'Weeks').