One of the passages that I discussed with my Sabbath School yesterday was Exodus 15:22-27, which reads as follows: “So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.”

At first glance there may appear to be little of lasting interest about this passage. The Bible is full of puns when it comes to names, and calling a place Marah because it is bitter is precisely the sort of etymology that the Bible does regularly. At times one may note that this is one of Israel’s many complaints during their wilderness experience, but it is likely that the passage would attract little additional thought, except among those who note God’s conditional promise to not inflict Israel with the diseases of Egypt if they obeyed. Unfortunately, they did not obey. As it happens, though, as I was pondering this passage earlier today [1], it struck me that there was a connection between this passage and the book of Ruth, which I had just read as part of my chronological Bible reading program, a connection I had not drawn before, and that struck me as something very intriguing and certainly worthy of comment, as it was not a connection I had heard others draw before either, and it was not a comment I have made when doing my previous writing on the Book of Ruth, which is one of my favorite books of the Bible [2].

The first area of connection is what is said in Ruth 1:19-22: “Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.” The first thing about this passage that jumps out when one compares it with Exodus 15 is that the exact same wordplay is used. Just like the Israelites named a lake full of bitter water Marah, so Naomi names herself Mara because God has dealt bitterly with her.

If this were the only connection between the two chapters, it would be an interesting coincidence, something to think about for a few seconds and then pass on to something else. After all, wordplay of that nature, even having the bitterness defined a couple of times, is fairly commonplace and nothing out of the ordinary. Yet the passage in Ruth 1 shares another connection with the passage in Exodus 15 that is worth considering as well, and that is the timing. Ruth 1:22 comments, in a rather offhand manner, that Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. It just so happens that the beginning of the barley harvest happens at the time of Passover (see Leviticus 23:9-14, which states that no bread can be eaten until the wave sheaf has been offered, around the time of the Passover). So, not only do we have two passages talking about bitterness, but we also have them set at the same time of year, just after Passover. And there is more, since the command in Exodus 12:8 requires the Passover lamb to be eaten with bitter herbs: “Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” So here we have explicit connections between the book of Ruth and Exodus to the time of Passover as well as bitterness.

And there is yet one more connection between Ruth and Exodus 15. According to the Bible Study Tools dictionary [3], Tamar means palm. In Exodus 15:27, the children of Israel camped at Elim (the first part of the name of Naomi’s late husband Elimelech) where there were many palm trees and pleasant water. Likewise, Boaz receives the following blessing from the elders of Bethlehem, who have this to say in Ruth 4:12: “May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman.” Not only that, but the book of Ruth ends with a discussion of the genealogy of David through Ruth, and David was himself the ancestor of Jesus Christ, who serves as our Passover lamb. Again, there are a great deal of connections to be found in this rich little book relating to timing and subject matter, and the connection between Passover and bitterness, but to ultimate redemption and restoration. There is a great deal to be pondered upon, so much so that while it might be tempting to see the layers of symbolic meaning and argue against the historicity of the events of Ruth as they are described because the parallels are so extensive, it is more profitable to ponder on just how layered the Word of God is, and that it is rewarding to draw parallels and reflect upon them, especially when there are so many parallels to make.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/the-fractured-fairy-tale-of-israels-departure-from-egypt/

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/divine-providence-in-the-book-of-ruth-part-one/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/why-do-jews-and-christians-read-ruth-for-shavuot-pentecost-the-feast-of-weeks/

[3] http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/tamar/