Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we finished our ninth book of the Bible, and we're rapidly closing in on 100 days in the word.

So I think you should do something to celebrate.

If you know other people who are doing the Bible recap,

maybe you should get together and have a little party or something.

If kids can have a party for hitting 100 days in school,

you can do it for hitting 100 days in the Bible.

Come on, this will serve you better than algebra any day.

No offense to the math teachers among us. We love you. You're

invited to the party too. Bring ice cream. Okay, let's drop in on Ruth's story. It takes place during

the time of the judges when all kinds of wickedness is filling the land of Israel. The book opens

with a married couple, Ilimaq and Naomi, leaving their hometown, Bethlehem of Judah, to escape a famine.

They settle in Moab across the Jordan River, which is pagan territory. We'll include a link to a map

in today's show notes so you can see where this is. After Alimalec and Naomi and their two sons get to

Moab, the sons do the very thing Moses warned them against. They marry women who worship

other gods. Eventually, Alemelaq and his sons all die, leaving Naomi and her Moabite daughters-in-law

behind defend for themselves. Naomi is in dire straits because as a widow with no offspring,

there's no way for her to be provided for, and especially not in a foreign land that has no

rules for providing for widows like Israel does. Fortunately, she gets word that Bethlehem isn't

in a famine anymore, and she packs her bags. She tells her pagan daughters-in-law to go back to

their homes where they can start over. Orpah goes back home, but Ruth makes a shocking decision. She attaches herself to a

destitute, depressed widow, and leaves her country to move to a foreign land. She chooses the

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