There is insufficient evidence on the authorship of the Book of Ruth. Historically, this sounds like it was in the days of the judges (Ruth.1:1), but was finalized in another era. (Hubbard, 1988). According to Gerald West, editor of the Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, “The opening words, When the judges ruled, date back to this period; the gloss of Ruth 4:7 explains an ancient custom for later readers; and Ruth 4:22 mentions David. Thus, the final editorial process could not have been completed before the time of David” (West, 2003, p. 211). The 19th century German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe declared that Ruth is “the most beautiful complete work on a small scale” (Hillenbrand, 2003, P.189). In the days of Judges, the apostasy and immorality of the Israelites brought suffering (Judges 2:19). God judged the people, and the consequences were war and famine. Due to famine, Elimelek and Naomi of the tribe of Judah left their homestead near Bethlehem and went to a neighboring country called Moab. The Moabites were descended from Lot through his daughters (Genesis 19:36-38). There is no evidence that they were driven by God to leave, but that they headed to land to survive. Their sons married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. I consider Ruth's marriage to be her first career. At that time, women had only two acceptable places in society: they could be a daughter in their father's house or a wife in their husband's house. A woman without a husband has no social status (Taitz, Henry, Talon, 2003). Ruth's marriage to Malhon proved to be an important career decision. HB Gelatt states in his formal decision theory that an individual who “must make a decision has two or more possible courses of action. ...... middle of paper ......everything and take care of Naomi. We classify her more as a missionary or a caregiver because she had the compassion and empathy to handle both. In Naomi's homeland, Ruth becomes a stranger in a strange land. Things were bad but life had to go on. Naomi was bitter and going through difficult times. Naomi was sure that God was treating her harshly and she was unhappy. Ruth was an adopter and stayed with Naomi to care for her needs. We can see the mind of a counselor taking shape. Ruth tried to help during Naomi's difficult times. There isn't much information in this part of a passage to draw a specific conclusion, but seeing the type of woman Ruth was becoming leads me to believe that the role of counselor in Ruth's life Ruth was used by Naomi. Regardless, God still used Naomi, even in her bitterness, to graft Ruth into the lineage of Jesus Christ (West)., 2003).