The book Ruth is recognized as one of the world's literary masterpieces. Murray Gow's study illuminates the artistry of its anonymous author, showing how the separate sections relate to the book as a whole. Though Ruth is a moving story, it is also a presentation of God's providence in which human agency and divine activity are intermeshed. Against recent denials Murray Gow defends the traditional view that the marriage of Ruth and Boaz is leviratic. He sees the book's purpose as being to defend the Moabite element in the ancestry of King David and concludes by offering suggestion as to its provenance, date and authorship.