THE SONG OF RUTH

The lovely story of Ruth offers an appealing subject in his religious revival which has included The Galileans, The Road to Bithynia, and he concerns himself with love and history to herald figures of old. While Boaz warned Israel that Hedak, the Moab, would overrun the land on his great march to the sea, his sworn blood-brother Mahlon, the metalsmith, crossed with his starving family into Moab. Against his will Mahlon forged his fine swords for Hedak, men, but he found joy in his marriage with Ruth, the Steadfast One, who left her post as a handmaiden of the Moabite god Chemosh and took his god Yahveh as her own. Mahlon, in a mistaken effort to foster negotiations between Israel and Moab, bares Boaz to Hedak's treachery, and pays with his life for Boaz' escape as Ruth saves him from the flames of Chemosh. Then Ruth follows Naomi to Bethlehem, endures the taunts of less well-favored women, the connivance of a lusting kinsman, the accusation that she is a spy- to become the wife of the once deceived but now trusting Boaz, who routs Hedak and his men in a discovered ambush... Ancient rites, highly charged history, strong personalities lend drama to the story- which in the handling here has the virtues of popular emphasis and accessibility; the writing is far from the inspiration of the original source and is at best mediocre.