While reading in the book of Ruth, I found this passage.
Boaz had made a deal, with a closer relative than he, for all that had belonged to Elimelech.
That included the right to marry Ruth the Moabitess.
The deal was made at the city gate and all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 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.” Ruth 4:11-12
Now the part that caught my attention is the reference to Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.
Do you know this story?
Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law.
She was married to Judah’s son Er, who was so wicked that God killed him.
Onan took over for his brother to raise children for his brother through Tamar but he was wicked too and God killed him.
That left one son that was too young to marry so Judah told her to wait until he was old enough but as time passed, he forgot about it.
And it was told Tamar, saying, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face. Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. Gen 38:13-16
The story is one of [supposed] prostitution!
And this is what the people referred too?
They wished Boaz blessings over this story?
Sometimes the people are just weird.
Nevertheless, it shows God’s mercy and grace to give us life through such stories.
After all, Ruth is a Moabitess and an Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, Deut 23:3
Yet Ruth became the grandmother of a king named David!