Ruth and Boaz
Ruth, a Moabite widow, left her homeland to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi, and married Boaz of Bethlehem; their great-grandson was King David.
Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”
Ruth 1:16 (World English Bible)
A famine drove Naomi's family from Bethlehem to Moab, where her husband and sons died. Ruth refused to leave her, pledging herself to Naomi's people and God. In Bethlehem she gleaned in the fields of Boaz, a relative who acted as their kinsman-redeemer and married her.
The book is a quiet story of loyalty set in a violent age, and it ends with a genealogy leading to David, and through him to Jesus.
Places
Dating notes
Ruth 1:1 says only “in the days when the judges judged.” The date shown follows a Jewish tradition (Talmud, Bava Batra 91a) identifying Boaz with the judge Ibzan of Bethlehem. Alternate: since Matthew 1:5 names Rahab as Boaz's mother, some place Ruth much earlier, early in the judges period; the Boaz–Obed–Jesse–David line is then likely abbreviated. Treat as approximate.