By laying claim to earlier traditions and recasting them, the book of Ruth relocates a Moabite, whom the law would exclude, into the community of Israel. (See [Recasting Old Law].) One need not, however, wait until the end of Ruth to think of Tamar. Ruth and Tamar are female characters, both foreign and widows. Neither controls her circumstances, but each creates a future that stretches for generations to come. More broadly, they are part of a larger spectrum of women’s stories that move from barrenness