Lovely and full of life Ruth moves along the streets of wealthy Kir, high in the land of Moab. The fearful gods and ancient customs she has always known do not appeal as do the understanding God and gentle ways of the Hebrew family into which she and Orpha are married.

When the widowed Naomi tells her widowed daughters-in-law that they need not return with her to the country, Ruth makes the first of many great decisions. She and Naomi must face the terrors of the wilderness with its wild beasts and men, deserts, strange waters, plagues of locusts. In a time of great hunger Ruth may not touch the familiar food the Hebrews deem unclean. Many things are harder for the gently reared, but Ruth has great depths of courage and devotion.

When they come to the land of Judea, Naomi is welcomed. Now Ruth is the stranger, the foreigner. How she finds love and a great position in her new country is a wonderful story, and the customs and traditions that prompted her actions are clearly told. Laws, rituals, customs, routes, trades, geography are so well described that the reader really feels that he himself moves through these fabulous lands of long ago, looking and seeing for himself.

This retelling of the Ruth and Naomi story is a deeply moving historical document and a venture into the spiritual life.

From the dust jacket