RUTH

Chapter 8 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

VIII. Ruth

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

3 Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

6 When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me-even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons-13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has gone out against me!”

14 At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her.

15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realised that Ruth determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

Ruth: Chapter 1: 1-18 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 2-Exodus-where we left our main characters, Jane and Toni, being arrested for murder.

1

Elizabeth, who most people called Liz, was still in a state of shock from what she had heard from her grandmother. She was standing by the massive window in the “luxurious hospital suite”. Her grandmother seemed to be sleeping now. For all Elizabeth knew, the old lady could actually be dead, now that she had finally managed to tell the story. Looking at her, you could hardly notice any breathing from her; she was very still. Elizabeth turned her gaze away from the old lady and looked outside through the window.

This “hospital room” was actually like a luxurious suite of a five-star hotel. There were leather sofas next to where Elizabeth was standing. There were three television sets in the room. These television sets had been placed in such a way that the patient would always be facing a set from any direction. “What a worst of resources,” thought Elizabeth every time she came to visit her grandmother. It seemed the hospital needed to do something outrageous to justify the exorbitant fees that they were charging. Honestly, why would someone want three television sets in one room?

The window, from which Elizabeth was gazing outside, overlooked a well kept central courtyard. There was a five point fountain in the middle of that courtyard. It was actually four fountains arranged in such a way that they formed a square in which there was one big centre fountain. On any other day, the scenery would be a sight to behold. The courtyard had been carefully designed to offer a “tranquil scene” to the hospital’s “over-charged” patients. But today, Elizabeth looked out of the window without seeing any of that beauty.

“How could she have kept me in the dark about something so important”? Elizabeth thought.

2

Elizabeth’s grandmother, Mrs. Ruth Johnson, had been in hospital for the past four months. The doctors had actually told Elizabeth, after her granny had only been in hospital for ten days, that there was no hope for the old lady. She was supposed to have died during those first two weeks, according to the doctors. But something had kept the old lady alive. Elizabeth now knew why the old lady had clung to life for the past four months. She could not allow herself to die without telling Elizabeth the truth about her existence. On the one hand she could not bring herself to tell the story, always failing at the last minute to bring out the “sordid details” when Liz visited her in hospital. At the same time, the compelling need in her to finally free herself of the burden, persisted, keeping her alive when expert doctors had already written her off, giving her only a few days to live.

This is her story.

3

Grandmother Ruth told Elizabeth that she was not her “biological grandmother”. Apparently, Granny Ruth had become Liz’s grandmother through a strange set of circumstances. At some time, more than twenty five years ago, Ruth was a maid who lived with a woman who was actually Liz’s “true biological grandmother”. When this woman died, she had left all her wealth to Ruth and had at the same time required that Ruth looks after Liz as she would have done with her own granddaughter.

The sting to this story was that Elizabeth’s mother, whom she thought had died whilst giving birth to Liz, was actually alive. She was alive but serving a life sentence in jail for murder. Not only that, Elizabeth’s father was also alive and in jail for the same offences committed by her mother. The names of her parents were Jane and Antony (Toni), and they had been jailed for killing Antony’s brother Tom who had actually been Elizabeth’s mother’s husband at the time! It was all too much to accept!

During the six month trial of Jane and Toni, it was discovered that Jane was pregnant. She had given birth to a baby girl who was immediately taken away to be looked after by her grandmother, who happened to be Ruth’s employer. Liz’s biological grandmother was Toni and Tom’s mother and she had “inherited” her son, Tom’s estate after the tragic developments relating to the “ill-feted” love triangle.

Unfortunately, Liz’s real grandmother had also not lived long. She succumbed to breast cancer when Liz was only nine months old. No wonder Liz had no recollection of this woman. Due to the fact that Tom had been a successful businessman, Elizabeth’s real grandmother ended up being a rich woman. When she died, leaving her entire estate to her maid Ruth, the maid, naturally, also became extremely wealthy.

Now this woman, who Elizabeth thought was her grandmother but who had actually been a maid to Liz’s grandmother, was also dying in hospital. Obviously, Elizabeth, at a young age of twenty-three, was also now going to inherit the enormous wealth after the imminent death of her “Grandmother”.

But the thought of acquiring enormous wealth was not of concern to Elizabeth right now. As she continued to look down towards the hospital courtyard with “un-seeing eyes’, she was thinking, “What am I going to do with this new found knowledge? What am I going to do about the two jail birds who happen to be my parents?”

The next chapter-1 Samuel- will be published not later than Saturday, 8 January 2011

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