Deuteronomy 23:3 - "No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation none belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the Lord for ever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came forth from Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you".
Now, consider the following.
Ruth 1:3-5 "Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband."
So, this Israelite, Mahlon, marries a moabite woman named Ruth. She isn't an Israelite living in the former territory of Moab, otherwise the author of the book of Ruth would made that clear. Instead, it's clear that, before her conversion to the worship of Yahweh, Ruth belongs to the people that had been accursed by Yahweh, the moabites, and used to worship other gods of the land.
Ruth 1:15 - "“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
Ruth converts to the worship of Yahweh and travels to Israel with Naomi. The Book of Ruth then tells us that Ruth meets a man named Boaz. He then takes Ruth as his wife.
Ruth 4:9, 10 - "Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife."
The fruit of this marriage was a son named Obed. He came to be the grandfather of King David.
Ruth 4:13-17 - "So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. (...) Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David."
As we know, Jesus' geneology is traced back to King David by the writers Matthew and Luke:
Matthew 1:5-16 - "Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. (...) Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah."
Luke 3:23-32 - "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli (...) the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz (...)"
Now here's the puzzling question:
How come David, the cherished founder of the Israelite-Judean monarchy, was a descendant of a Moabite?
The clear instructions that Yahweh gave concerning the Moabites and their descendants meant that they were to be banned and barred from partaking in the "assembly of the Lord forever". Why was this ignored in the case of David? And why is the Messiah Jesus a descendant from a Moabite, through Ruth and her son Obed?
Some may argue that there was an exception for those who converted to the worship of Yahweh. But why would a Moabite enter the "assembly of the Lord" unless with the intention of worshipping Yahweh? No written concession is made to open an exception for those who convert to Yahwism. It seems clear that the ban of the Moabites was based on ethnicy rather than religious affiliations.
Some others may argue that this only applied to male Moabites, and therefore, Ruth, the moabite female, wasn't included in the ban. But this doesn't stand either, since, in post-exilic times, the Jew men who married women from Moab were severely reprimanded:
Neemiah 13:23-27 - "In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women ofAshdod, Ammon, and Moab...I contended with them and CURSED THEM and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons or for yourselves...Shall we do all thisgreat evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?" (...)"
Ezra 10:2, 3, 44 - "We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us (...) Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. (...) All these had married foreign women, and some of them had children by these wives."
Notice that, in accordance with the "commands of our God" [such as the ones found in Deuteronomy 23:3 regarding the foreign women of Moab], not only the ethnical Moabites were to be cast out, but also their mixed progeny. By this token, Obed should have been ousted, along with his mother Ruth. Jesse and David too.
Question is:
Why is that King David and the Messiah Jesus descend from an "accursed" Moabite, Ruth, who should have never been allowed into God's assembly - not her, nor any of her mixed progeny with an Israelite?
In the same vein, also consider that there was Ammonite mixed blood in the ancestry of Jesus:
Matthew 1:6, 7 - " and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa".
Now, we are informed in 1 Kings 14:21, 22: "Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah...His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess."
Eden