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•RUE a garden herb (Ruta graveolens) which the Pharisees were careful to tithe (Luke 11:42), neglecting weightier matters. It is omitted in the parallel passage of Matthew 23:23. There are several species growing wild in Palestine. It is used for medicinal and culinary purposes. It has a powerful scent, and is a stimulant. (See MINT.)
•RUFUS red, the son of Simon the Cyrenian (Mark 15:21), whom the Roman soldiers compelled to carry the cross on which our Lord was crucified. Probably it is the same person who is again mentioned in Romans 16:13 as a disciple at Rome, whose mother also was a Christian held in esteem by the apostle. Mark mentions him along with his brother Alexander as persons well known to his readers (Mark 15:21).
•RUHAMAH having obtained mercy, a symbolical name given to the daughter of Hosea (2:1).
•RUMAH elevation, probably the same as Arumah (Judges 9:41; 2 Kings 23:36), near Shechem. Others identify it with Tell Rumeh, in Galilee, about 6 miles north of Nazareth.
•RUSH the papyrus (Job 8:11). (See BULRUSH.) The expression “branch and rush” in Isaiah 9:14; 19:15 means “utterly.”
•RUTH a friend, a Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, whose father, Elimelech, had settled in the land of Moab. On the death of Elimelech and Mahlon, Naomi came with Ruth, her daughter-in-law, who refused to leave her, to Bethlehem, the old home from which Elimelech had migrated. There she had a rich relative, Boaz, to whom Ruth was eventually married. She became the mother of Obed, the grandfather of David. Thus Ruth, a Gentile, is among the maternal progenitors of our Lord (Matthew 1:5). The story of “the gleaner Ruth illustrates the friendly relations between the good Boaz and his reapers, the Jewish land system, the method of transferring property from one person to another, the working of the