You think you know this story.
A loyal daughter-in-law. A kind farmer. A widow who gets a second chance. A love story tucked into the back of the Old Testament that makes for a nice devotional read.
Except that’s not what this book is.
Ruth opens in the period of the judges… the most spiritually chaotic season in Israel’s entire history. It features a family that leaves the promised land for enemy territory, two sons who marry Moabite women in direct tension with Torah, a mother-in-law who arrives home so gutted by grief that she refuses to answer to her own name, and a foreign woman who makes a covenant declaration that puts most of the Israelites in the story to shame.
And running underneath all of it is a single Hebrew word that the narrator uses six times in one chapter, pulling in three different directions at once.
That word is shuv. And it means to return. To turn back. To come home.
This is Week One of our free four-week study of the book of Ruth. We’re going slowly, we’re going deep, and we’re reading with the Hebrew in hand. By the time we get to chapter four, you are going to see Yeshua written all over a story you thought you already knew.
Week One covers Ruth chapter one. Download the full study below and bring it to your table, your couch, your journal, wherever you do your best thinking. This link is where all the weeks lessons will be deposited so I recommend bookmarking it!
See you in the text.
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And if it left you wanting to go slower and deeper into the Word, I’ve got you!
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About the Author
Diane Ferreira is a Jewish believer in Yeshua, a published author, speaker, seminary student, wife, and proud mom. She is the founder of She’s So Scripture and She Opens Her Bible. She is the author of several books, including The Proverbs 31-ish Woman, which debuted as Amazon’s #1 New Release in Religious Humor, as well as Holy, Hormonal and Holding On.
She is currently pursuing her graduate degree in Jewish Studies in seminary, with her favorite topics being the early church and Biblical Hebrew. Diane writes and teaches from a unique perspective, bridging her Jewish heritage with vibrant faith in the Messiah to bring clarity, depth, and devotion to everyday believers.
When she’s not writing, studying, or teaching, you’ll find her curled up with a good book, crocheting something cozy, or playing her favorite video games.
Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.