"The narrative of the book of Ruth is a drama of ordinary human life, but the drama unfolds against a background of the providence and purposes of God. Katharine Doob Sakenfeld has written a commentary that makes very clear why the book of Ruth has such great importance as literature and as scripture. The commentary gives evenhanded treatment of both the human and divine dimensions of the text; Sakenfeld's interpretation is sociological as well as theological. She assesses all the significant questions about the origin and purpose of the book, and asserts that the organizing center of a proper reading must be found in the narrative itself rather than in tentative answers to historical questions."--BOOK JACKET.