Ruth 1:1

Ruth's Devotion: She Leaves Her Home and Follows Naomi to Judah

1 .in the days when the judges judged The scene of the following story is thus placed in a distant age, which the writer pictures as a time of idyllic peace. Evidently the Book of Judges was known to him: the opening phrase is based upon the Dtc. editor's theory set forth in Judges 2:16 ff. For judgesas a title see Introd. to Judges, p. xi.

a famine in the land Targ. the land of Israel; more probably, the land in which Beth-lehem was situated. In ancient times it was only strong necessity which induced people to leave their homes, cf. 2 Kings 8:1; for a foreign country meant a foreign religion (Ruth 1:16), -How shall we sing Jehovah's song in a strange land?" See Amos 7:17; Hosea 9:3.

to sojourn as a protected alien; cf. Judges 17:7 n.

the country of Moab lit. the field of M., similarly in Ruth 1:2; Ruth 1:6; Ruth 1:22, Ruth 2:6; Ruth 4:3; cf. the field of the Philistines1 Samuel 27:5; 1 Samuel 27:7. Moab lay on the E. of the Jordan.