Lovers of Ruth: Boaz and Mahlon

By Grampa Ed Fraase

This book is written to show that life was not a lot different during this time that it was written and today. Ruth had two husbands, which a lot of people did not know about. Very little is mentioned about her husbands in the Bible. It really is two love stories in one. First as a young woman in the land of Moasb she marries a Jewish
boy by the name of Mahlon. Then she comes to Israel with her
mother-in-lae, Naomi after all the men have passed on. Their she meets a man twice her age and marries him. He is Boaz. This is a
must read part of the book but only after you read all of the book.

That is also the way I taught the Bibled, read and understand the Old Testament before going on to the New Testament.
You will be surprised at the ending if you have never read this book of the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Jan 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781489733252

Grampa Ed Fraase

This is the authors tenth book he has written. The first seven are designed for teenagers and adults to learn about Jesus, God and the Bible. The eight book is for children eight years and older, a book of fiction on the life of Jesus as a child. The author lived in Woodstock Illinois when he wrote this book. He has now moved to DeWitt Iowa and finished the grammer and spelling in DeWitt, until he was happy with the outcome. The author is 86 yrs young, has three children, six grandchildren and three great grandsons. His wife passed away and went with the Lord in nineteen ninety (1990), one month short of their thirty-fourth wedding anniversary. He also served in the US Air Force from 1952-1956. He has taught the Bible in Sunday school to children, to adults and in small group Bible study in peoploes homes. He started writting when or around seventy years of age. At present he is writting another fictional book around the Nephilims in the Bible.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 Grampa Ed Fraase.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3324-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3325-2 (e)

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 01/12/2021

Contents

Chapter 1: The Love Story Begins

Chapter 2: Israel has a drought, Elimelech moves his family

Chapter 3: Time has gone very fast

The boys have grown into young men

Chapter 4: Naomi goes home; finally

Chapter 5: The Party

Chapter 6: Is the Deal Completed?

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to the people that I know in Woodstock, Illinois, and to the city of Woodstock who funded the schooling for a writing class. They were hoping to get another movie that could be filmed there. I think though, this is not exactly what they had in mind. The other two movies that were filmed there were comedy; which were ‘Trains, Plains, and Automobiles’; and also ‘Groundhog Days’.

Thank you.

A FICTIONAL Love story

(Warning: This story ‘does’ contain some SEXUAL CONTENT)

From the Book of Ruth–(In the KJV Bible)

(It is this author’s interpretation—I am not a scholar).

A quick description of what is what:

This is a fictional story, with the main theme being from the Book of Ruth, in the KJV Bible. The book of Ruth, which ‘some scholars believe is a love story, deals mostly with Ruth and says very little about her first and second husbands.

‘This story’ tries to tell the love story of both husbands, with the emphasis on ‘Boaz’, a rich landowner and related to Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi, through marriage to Naomi’s husband, whose name was Elimelech.

Ruth comes from the land of Moab, where she meets and marries Mahlon, one of Elimelech’s sons. When Naomi comes back to Israel, Ruth comes back with her. There she meets Boaz, and they fall in love and marry.

Now Boaz, comes from the region of Judah, just outside of Bethlehem and around five miles south of this small city. Boaz lived around six hundred B.C., a son of another rich landowner.

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This is the end of the description, but we realize more knowledge is needed, which follows:

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Shalom Boaz, his neighbor calls out to him. How is your father Solomon and your mother Rahab. Are they doing good for they are getting up in age, and I have not seen much of them over this last winter?

Boaz yells back to his neighbor;

They are doing great, thank the Lord God. They both were sick over the winter, but it looks like they are doing great right now. Thank you for asking about them. I will tell them you said Shalom.

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Boaz comes from a good man before him, whose name was Salmon, a Judahite, who married Rahab, the harlot (or prostitute) of Jericho.

(‘I must tell you, that some scholars dispute this, while other scholars say it is true. She is believed to be Israeli, but no information could be found as to what she was. Now, Rahab is a known woman in Jericho, including some of the Israeli people. She hides two army spies, from Israel, in her room that she lives in, before the Israeli fight a war, with this city of Jericho’).

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Now, the spies of Israel marked Rahab’s room by hanging interwoven colored pieces of cloth, out of her window, when the war started. That way, she was out of danger from the war, and possibly death. These colored braided strips of cloth told the Israeli soldiers to leave her and her room alone when the war started. This is recorded in the KJV Bible in Joshua 2:1-7. Maybe you remember the song; ‘When the walls came tumbling down’. That was the City of Jericho.

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The Israeli Judge that ruled Israel at that time, says to Rahab:

Rahab, by rights you should be stoned or marked as a prostitute. But as you helped our spies during this war with Jericho, I am pardoning you. Since the king of Jericho still has many friends around, I believe it to be best if you come to Israel. But do not become a prostitute again or you will be branded. Have you understood what I have told you? There is work for you in our country, you just have to find out what you prefer to do, then go to work.

Rahab says back;

Thank you for helping this sinful woman. I will do as you say, and I may just work in the fields, for I am not that young anymore to do some of the other work that you mentioned to me earlier. May the Lord God be with you.

After Rahab moved to Israel, she meets Salmon and they wed, giving forth a son by the name of Boaz.

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So, that ‘you’ the reader knows, shortly after Boaz’s neighbor said to say ‘Shalom’ to Boaz’s parents, they became ill and both passed on nearly together.

Boaz was the only boy child they had, so he inherited all the land and belongings from his father, Salmon. Now, Boaz decided at an early age that he liked money, so he increased his land holdings and the crops that he grew, which brought him more money.

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Boaz is in his home, counting his money from that day’s profit, and thinking to himself;

(‘I must keep looking for a woman to marry and bear me a son, so I can pass my money and my land too, as I had it passed on to me. I will just have to look harder for one, but I want someone that is young and does not know I have money. As that is what some of them want, a very rich husband so they can spend it all on themselves. But they have to be of childbearing age. If too old, then maybe no children - that will not do. I just want to like how she looks, and how she would treat me also. Thinking about women, I think it is time for a trip to Bethlehem for a couple of days, as I need some companionship soon’).

Boaz was always making money, so you do not have a lot of time to find and court a woman. And at his present age, there were fewer and fewer women who wanted an older man; even though he was in better shape and looked better than some of the forty-year-old men around that area.

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Remember a lot of this story is found in the Book of Ruth; which is the eighth book of the Bible, in the Old Testament (KJV). Now this Love story may be worded slightly differently, than what the author writes. While the ‘love story’ between Ruth and Mahlon is all ‘fiction’ at the beginning, along with the story with Boaz as well, it is the story of her marriage to both, from the Book of Ruth.

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This Book of the Bible, or love story, is during the time of a judge that ruled Israel by the name of Ehud. Ehud became famous for defeating the Moabite people. But during this story about the two men in Ruth’s life, there was peace between Israel and Moab.

(You should read about Judge Ehud and the king of Moab in Judges 3:12 – 4:1 in the KJV Bible).

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This is just before the kings ruled Israel, which is ‘what the people’ wanted, they just ‘believed’ a king was so much better than a judge ruling them. Many judges, actually twelve, ruled Israel before the king era.

The most famous of the Kings is a father, then a son, and who followed each other, named King David and King Salomon.

‘Now Boaz had something to do with King David and King Solomon, which you shall find out as you read this story’.

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Chapter One

THE LOVE STORY BEGINS

B oaz is talking to the overseer, of all his workers.

I will be gone for maybe three days, says Boaz, maybe even four days, and then I shall return. Business as usual; You know what must be done, and do them as I have told you, and ‘in the order’, I have told you; instructing his overseer.

As Boaz turns to leave, and riding his donkey, he is thinking;

(‘I must look for another man to do his work, for if anything happens to him, I will have to train someone new. I would rather have him do the training, as he knows everything by heart. I need someone to take his place, just in case he gets hurt, or dies for some unknown reason. He makes sure the workers are rehired every year, including the women that pick up the loose grain. Without them, I lose a lot of money. He also keeps a tab on those that Glean in the fields after we are finished with that field. They pick up what is left after my crews are done. They must work for their food until they no longer can work. They do not just get their food handed to them’).

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(‘You, yes you, need’ to join them ‘Gleaning’ in Boaz’s fields, which is picking up the loose grain that they leave behind; easy, not really; you spill some rice on the floor and try picking it up kernel