Tales and Customs of the Ancient Hebrews (Yesterday's Classics) by Herbst Eva

Author:Herbst, Eva [Herbst, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781599152929
Publisher: Yesterday's Classics
Published: 2010-11-10T01:24:03.875000+00:00

MOSES AND MIRIAM REJOICING

How happy they were! For this was their day of deliverance. And the Children of Israel, for all time to come, will bless Moses, who, with the help of God, delivered them from their bondage.

The Story of Ruth

I AM sure you all love to hear your parents talk to you of what their grandmothers and grandfathers did when they were young, so many years ago. So David loved to hear of his great-grandmother Ruth, who was known as the noblest and best of all Hebrew women.

Now, at one time, there had been a dreadful famine in Bethlehem. There lived there the family of Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons. When the famine came, they no longer had bread to eat, so they went into a strange country, and, soon after, the father died. Here the sons found wives, one of them being Ruth, the great-grandmother of David. They lived together happily, for some years; then both sons died, and Naomi was left very poor. She said: "I shall go back to my own people at Bethlehem. They will help me, for God has again blessed them with bread."

Then the daughters-in-law said they would go with her. All three started on the journey, but, after they had gone some distance, Naomi begged the others to return to their mothers' homes, where they would fare better than they would in a strange land. The young women felt very sad as they thought of leaving Naomi, and when she kissed them good-by they wept. They said they would not leave her. But Naomi still urged them, and at last the older of the two women kissed her mother-in-law again, and returned to her own home.

Ruth still clung to Naomi. She said: "Urge me not to leave thee, for whither thou goest, will I go: and where thou lodgest, will I lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God."

So the two women traveled on to Bethlehem. The name of this city—"House of Bread"—seemed rightly given, at the time these women found their way to a large farm near the city, for it was harvest time, and they saw the farmers busily gathering in the grain, which was very plentiful.

Naomi had no money to buy food, so Ruth went into the field. Here she saw the men and maidens working. She asked to be allowed to glean after the reapers. The grain was cut with the sickle, and bound into bundles which were called sheaves. As the reapers gathered the sheaves of grain, the stray ears which fell from them were picked up by Ruth. This was called gleaning. The men let her do this, as they wished to be kind to a stranger. Besides it was a law to allow the poor to glean.

When Boaz, the owner of the field, saw her, and learned who she was, and what a good daughter-in-law she was to Naomi, he told the men to help her—to let her have as much grain as she could carry.

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