 Tamar Meir of the Jewish Women's Archive writes that Ruth and David being descended from these two men is seen as a "reward" for them.For Balak, it is his reward for building altars and for Eglon, it is his reward for "arising upon hearing the name of God from Ehud son of Gera".The same text says that Ruth did not convert during her marriage to Mahlon, contradicting other rabbinic literature, which says that Ruth formally converted to Judaism for the sake of marrying Mahlon but did not fully accept the faith until later.