). See, further, H. A. Redpath.
RUTH, BOOK OF This book, in which the
history of Ruth (see preceding article) is narrated, is full of interest. It is an anonymous work, idyllic in its character, describing pastoral life among the Hebrews in a time of peace and order.
when old customs were kept up and careftJly observed.
i. The Date of the Book. — This must ba considerably later than the history, though how much later is a matter of controversy. The book looks back to ' the days when the juilges ruled' (!'), to a custom existing 'in former time in Israel' (4'), and carries the descent from Boaz down to David (4-^), unless, as some have with little probability thought, the last verses do not really belong to the book. But it claims no particular date for itself, though the style would lead us to assign it to a comparatively early one. The linguistic dilUculties in the way of its being early have been discu.ssed by Driver [LOT pp. 426, 427 [«454, 455]). The main argument for a post-exUic date, besides the linguistic one, is the way in which the customs of ch. 4 are treated as quite obsolete.
ii. The Object of the Book.— This may be described as twofold. (1) To introduce us to the family from which David was descended ; and (2) to illustrate the marriage laws of the Israel- ites. The marriage of Rutli the Moabitess with Mahlon seems at first to run counter to the law as laid down in Dt 23'- *, and certainly in post- exilic times such a union was held to be unlawful (see Ezr 9'- *, Neh 10^), but the law quoted says nothing about marriage, and differs in its terms from that of Dt 7^. Some of those who look upon this book as post-exUic have been tempted to regard it almost as a political pamphlet, and a protest against the action taken both by Ezra and Nehemiah.
iii. Place in the Canon. — In the Jewish Canon the Talmud (Bab. Baba bathra 14) places it first amongst the Hagiographa or third class of sacred writings immediately before the Psalms. In Hebrew Bibles it is one of the five Megilloth or rolls which were read in the Synagogue on five special days in the Jewisli ecclesiastical year — Ruth being read at the Feast of Weeks. As this was the second of the five days, the Book of Ruth generally appears second in order ; but in Spanish SiSS and m one Bible of A.D. 1009 Ruth comes first (Buld, Canon of the OT, i. § 10). The arrange- ment adopted in modern versions by which Ruth follows Judges goes back to the Vulgate and LXX, and also to Josephus.* Its position in them ia due to its having been linked on to the Book of Judges by its first verse, and having been treated as an appendix to that book.
Literature. — Commentarie8 of Metzgrer 0857), Kei! and Delitzsch, Wright (ISM), Bertlieau (combined with Ju<iije», 1SS3), Hummelauer (lb6S), (Jeltli (Die i/e.sch. Ha'jiog., Nord. lingen, 18!itf),Wildeboer(Ai/rier Udcom. ISUS), Nowack (i/Jtom. 190(1) ; ct. also Driver, LOT 426 f?. [6 454 II.J ; Cornill, Einteit.i 2429.; Wildeboer, Lit. d. AT, 341 ff.; Wellhausen - Bleck ; Kobertson in Book bi/ Book, 75; W. R. Smith, art. 'Kuth' in Encycl. Brit.^ ; Bee also the relevant sections in the works ol Ejfle, Wildeboer, and Buhl on the Canon of OT.
H. A. Redpath. RYE (npoa kusscmeth ; f^a, 6\xipa, far, vicia). — Kussemeth occurs three times in the Bible. Twice it is tr'' by AV ' rye ' (Ex 9^^ Is 28^ m ' spelt ' ; RV in both passages ' spelt '). It is also tr'* in AV 'fitches' (Ezk 4», AVm and RV 'spelt'). The LXX gives in the first and third of the above references SKvpa, and in the second ^ia. 6\vpa may, and f^a does, mean ' spelt,' which is the seed of Tritkum spelta, L., a wild wheat. Notwithstanding the authority of the LXX, we think that kussemeth is the same as the Arab, kirsanah, commonly pronounced kirsenneh. This is a leguminous plant, Vicia Ennlia, L., near the lentil in its general aspect. It is an annual, with pinnate leaves of 8 to 12 pairs of oblong, retuse leaflets, and a tortulose
• The only way in which Josephus* reckoning of the books ol the Bible as twenty-two can be accounted tor ia by luppoaing that he reckoned Judges and Ruth aa one book.
SABACHTHANI
SABBATH
315
pod, 1 in. Ion-' and J in. broad, containing 3 to 4 seeds, larger Uian those of the lentil. It is exceed- ingly common, being exten.sively cultivated for fodder, and for the seeds, which reseml)le those of the lentil. The substitution of r for the first s and n for m produces the classical Arab, form kirsanah. Evidently Jerome adopted this view,
translating the word by vicin. Rye is unknown in Bible lands, bpelt is not cultivated, and is unknown here in the wild state. Perhaps the best rendering would be ' vetch,' with a marginal note, ' the seed known l>}' the Arabs a-s kirxennelt, properly AirianaA ' (but see art. Brkad in vol. i. p. 316''). G. E. Post.
s
SABACHTH&NI.— See Eu, Eli, Lama Sabach- THANI.
SAB^ANS, 8EBA, SHEBA.— The pnrpose of