Ruth

The story of Ruth, which tells of the ancestry of David, Israel’s greatest king (Ruth 4:18–22), starts with great-great-grandfather Elimelek relocating his family to Moab to avoid a famine (1:1–2). Elimelek lived “in the days when the judges ruled” (v. 1). We’re not told the exact time, but it was within the three-hundred-year period (about 1380–1050 bc) between the death of Joshua (Joshua 24:29) and the beginning of Saul’s reign as king (1 Samuel 13:1). It was a time characterized by political instability, decadent immorality, and spiritual idolatry (Judges 2:10–13; 3:5–6) when “everyone did as they saw fit” (17:6; 21:25).

K. T. Sim