ruth was forty years old when she married boaz.
ruth was forty years old when she married boaz.
how old was ruth in the bible when she married boaz?
forty years old
although boaz was the prince of the people, he personally supervised the threshing of the grain in his barn, in order to circumvent any immorality or theft, both of which were rife in his days (tan., behar, ed. buber, viii.; "ruth rabba" to iii. 7). glad in his heart that the famine was over in israel, he sought rest after having thanked god and studied for a while in the "torah" (tan., l.c.; targum "ruth" iii. 7; and "ruth rabba" ib.). aroused out of his first sleep by ruth, he was greatly frightened, as he thought that she was a devil; and he was convinced of the contrary only after touching the hair of her head, since devils were believed to be bald (tan., l.c.). when he perceived the pure and holy intentions of ruth he not only did not reprove her for her unusual behavior, but he blessed her, and gave her six measures of barley, indicating thereby that six pious men should spring from her, who would be gifted by god with six excellences (cf. ; "sanhedrin" 93b; "numbers rabba" xiii. 11; "ruth rabba" and "targum to ruth" iii. 15; the names of the six men differ in these passages, but david and the messiah are always among them). boaz fulfilled the promises he had given to ruth, and when his kinsman (the sources differ as to the precise relationship existing between them) would not marry her because he did not know the "halakah" which decreed that moabite women were not excluded from the israelitic community, boaz himself married her ("ruth rabba" to iv. 1). boaz was eighty and ruth forty years old (idem to iii. 10), but their marriage did not remain childless, though boaz died the day after his wedding (midrash "zutta", ed. buber, 55, below).
boaz
intermarriage with other nations was permissible. there are several instances of transnational marriages in the bible, such as joseph being given an egyptian wife by pharaoh, rahab, the prostitute from jericho, marrying salmon - becoming an ancestor of christ, ruth the moabite married boaz - also becoming an ancestor of christ, and king solomon marrying pharaoh's daughter, as well as many other foreign wives. king solomon married to make alliances and keep the peace. however, king solomon was punished by god for facilitating his wives' worship of their own gods in israel and then worshipping alongside them. samson married a philistine. the book of ezra tells the jewish exiles to separate from the foreign wives they had married in babylon. moses' sister, miriam, criticizes him for marrying a cushite but is then cursed by god because of her criticizim.
transnational marriage