It doesn't compile to binary like C/C++ and it isn't high-level and interpreted like a Ruby or Python.
It's a weird middle-times language. It originally appeared in 1995 and is somewhat pioneering in the web space. But it isn't as clean as C# since C# appeared in 2001 and was able to learn from the mistakes of Java. It's definitely not as clean as Go which appeared in about 2009 and was able to learn from the mistakes of C, C++, Java, and C#.
The framework choice is probably more important than the language choice.
There is a fragmentation of frameworks. Starting a greenfield project with Spring, Struts, Stripe, WebObjects, etc would probably be a bad choice. Play is probably a reasonable choice.
But this is not an issue with Ruby or Python. You're probably going to pick Rails or Sinatra as your choice if you go with Ruby. You're probably going to go with Django if you go with Python.
Tyranny of choice is a problem with Java frameworks.