RUTH 1 — FAMINE, DEATH, AND A MOABITE WOMAN'S COMMITMENT

Ruth is one of the shortest books of the Old Testament, a narrative of four chapters set in the period of the judges, roughly the twelfth to eleventh centuries BC, a time that the book of Judges describes as morally chaotic. The book does not name its author. Jewish tradition attributes it to Samuel, which is possible but unprovable. Its closing genealogy ends with David (4:17–22), so it was written no earlier than David's time, and it may have been written during his reign or soon after. The story is a counterweight to Judges. Where Judges describes violence, betrayal, and everyone doing what is right in his own eyes, Ruth shows faithful, quiet loyalty (ḥesed) among ordinary people, and shows God's providence working through it to prepare for the monarchy of David. The setting involves several features of Israelite law and custom that help to explain the story: the law of gleaning (Leviticus 19:9–10; Deuteronomy 24:19–21), the redemption of family land (Leviticus 25:25–28), and the custom of marrying the widow of a dead kinsman to raise up an heir (Deuteronomy 25:5–10). Moab lay east of the Dead Sea. The Moabites were descended from Lot's older daughter (Genesis 19:37), and Israel's relations with Moab were mixed, including hostility (Numbers 22–25; Judges 3:12–30) and the law that no Moabite was to enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation (Deuteronomy 23:3–6). The book shows that, in practice, a Moabite woman who took refuge under the wings of the LORD could be welcomed into the people of God.

The setting of Ruth in the period of the judges fits the historical situation. Famines in the land of Canaan are documented in ancient sources, and movement of families to neighboring regions during famine is common. Moab, in the highlands east of the Dead Sea, was known for its agricultural productivity. The Mesha Stele, from the ninth century BC, records the Moabite king's wars with Israel and names the Moabite god Chemosh, which confirms the religious background described in verse 15. The place name Bethlehem in Judah is attested in the Amarna letters and in later sources, and a bulla from Jerusalem names the town. The practice of vows with self-imprecation is attested in the Bible and elsewhere. Ruth is included in the Hebrew Bible among the Writings and is read at the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), the festival of the grain harvest, which the story's harvest setting suits. The name David at the book's end connects it to the historical monarchy.