‘My daughter, will I not seek security for you…’ (Ruth 3:1): Reading Naomi and Ruth with ANE matrimonial adoptions

The relationship between Naomi and Ruth in the book of Ruth has generated various assessments in scholarship, from positive to negative, and everything in between. This article revisits the events in Ruth 3, wherein a parental figure (Naomi) barters a ‘daughter’ (Ruth) to another person (Boaz) for economic security amidst challenging circumstances. To understand the events in Ruth 3, this article puts the women’s actions in dialogue with ancient Near Eastern matrimonial adoptions, whereby young girls from poor backgrounds were integrated into new households to be married off later in life. Transactional in nature, these adoptions commodified underage or older girls for labour and sex. In view of these transactions, some aspects of Naomi and Ruth’s reasoning and actions amidst economic hardship appear legally admissible. Given these women’s diminished social position, what transpires in Ruth 3 also echoes practices in the post-exilic community as recorded in Neh. 5.