Siquans A. Foreignness and Poverty in the Book of Ruth: A Legal Way for a Poor Foreign Woman to Be Integrated into Israel

JBL 128, no. 3 (2009): 443–452.Two important topics in the book of Ruth are foreignness and the acceptance of foreigners by Judahite society. In order to integrate a Moabite woman into Israel, the biblical author refers to the laws of the Torah to protect the poor — especially widows, orphans, and aliens — as well as to levirate marriage. This article will take a closer look at the legal status of Ruth, with particular regard to Deuteronomic law.1 It will show that Ruth as “foreign woman” takes the place of an immigrant holding the status of an alien in Israel. She, as a woman on her own, as “the wife of the dead,” achieves a legal status that is not applied to any other woman in the OT.