Photo Friday: They Came to Bethlehem

Stand for Israel | February 11, 2022

Women reenact biblical story of Ruth in Bethlehem in the 1930s — (Photo: Library of Congress)

“So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.” (Ruth 1:22)

At the end of the first chapter of the Book of Ruth, Naomi – a woman originally from Bethlehem – returns to the city with her faithful daughter-in-law, Ruth.

And by the end of this brief biblical book’s fourth and final chapter, we we that when Ruth gives birth – in Bethlehem – to the child that would become the grandfather of King David, the women of Bethlehem said to her, “Praise by to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!” (Ruth 4:14).

The story of Ruth and Naomi in Bethlehem is what these Israeli women in 1930s Bethlehem are reenacting, a story that is surely famous throughout Israel and wherever else people of faith still read of it in their Bibles. Shabbat shalom, friends.