Enrich Your Prayers: The Prayers in the Book of Ruth

Context

In the book of Ruth, God never speaks or performs any direct miracles. But there are nine prayers in this short story—more prayers per amount of text than any other narrative book in the Bible except Esther (a book which never even mentions God).¹

Ruth is a beautiful book and a pleasant respite after the suffering and unfaithfulness of the events depicted in Judges. The story might seem to stand on its own, as a break between the stories of a nation struggling with God and their own faithfulness. It appears to have little connection to what went on before, and what comes after, in the history of Israel. Rather than a story of leaders and nations, it is the story of an insignificant family (from society’s perspective).

Yet in this delightful story are the seeds of hope for a ravished Israel. The faithfulness of a woman, her foreign daughter-in-law, and an Israelite man who does not realize that they will be the cause of high hopes and success for Israel.

Content

It begins with the story of great personal loss for a widow. She prays not for herself, but her widowed daughters-in-law, who are not even Israelites (1.8–9). This stands in contrast to the many petitions in Judges, where people in suffering pray for themselves. A prayer-vow is then offered by one of the daughters-in-law, again in a generous and sacrificial manner (1.17). “If only the leaders of Israel could have been as selfless and faithful” the writer seems to imply. The rest of the prayers are blessings, all asking God to bless someone for what they have done (2.4, 12; 2.19–20; 3.10, 4.11–12) except the last one, which is a blessing on God for what he has done (4.14).

Prayers

The prayers in Ruth reflect this hope in the characters’ faithfulness and joy. For our purposes, Ruth is a wonderful book from which to learn about prayers of blessing. There are seven of them, and only one intercession and one vow.

The abundant use of blessings in Ruth stands in contrast to the over-use of petitions in Judges, even though Ruth also deals with difficult times and uncertain futures. The book stands as an excellent model for us to imitate of the joy of prayer, blessings, and life—even in times of difficulty and doubt.

1. This counting also excluding the Psalms and Lamentations, of course, which are collections of hymns, not narratives. ↩︎

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