Q 01/05

What disaster, named in the first verse of Ruth, drove Elimelech's family from Bethlehem into Moab?

A) A plague

B) A famine

C) A Philistine raid

D) A royal tax

Answer · why

B) A famine

A famine in a town whose name means 'house of bread' is the irony the book opens on, and it sends an Israelite family to live among a people the Torah...

Q 02/05

Ruth's opening verse sets the story 'in the days when' which officials ruled, before Israel had a king?

A) The priests

B) The judges

C) The elders

D) The prophets

Answer · why

B) The judges

The judges' era was the Bible's stretch of tribal chaos and local strongmen, which makes this quiet tale of decency in Bethlehem a pointed contrast; C...

Q 03/05

Sealing her pledge to Naomi, Ruth swore that only what would ever part the two of them?

A) Marriage

B) A king's command

C) Death

D) Old age

Answer · why

C) Death

Death alone, she swore, 'if ought but death part thee and me', calling the Lord's punishment down on herself if she broke it, an oath formula Israel's...

Q 04/05

Elimelech's family came from Bethlehem in which tribe's territory, as distinct from a second Bethlehem up in Zebulun?

A) Judah

B) Benjamin

C) Ephraim

D) Dan

Answer · why

A) Judah

Judah is spelled out as 'Beth-lehem-judah' in the King James text, because Joshua's tribal lists also record a second Bethlehem far to the north in Ze...

Q 05/05

Naomi and Ruth reached Bethlehem, the text notes, just as the harvest of which grain was beginning?

A) Wheat

B) Millet

C) Barley

D) Spelt

Answer · why

C) Barley

Barley ripens first, around April, which puts Ruth in the fields for the whole season, through the wheat harvest that followed, before the threshing-f...