“And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.”
The next day the older daughter tells the younger she slept with their father the night before and they should do the same the following night. The elder daughter's report to the younger and the plan for the next night shows a disturbing purposefulness. The plan is to ensure offspring through incest. The narrative records it without editorial condemnation within the text — the condemnation is in the story's trajectory and in what the offspring will become. The Moabites and Ammonites, born from this night and the next, will oppress Israel, seduce Israel, and be excluded from the congregation (Deuteronomy 23:3–6). Yet Ruth the Moabitess will break the pattern with covenant loyalty that Jesus recognizes as ancestral to his own coming.
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