In this video listen to Ruth 1 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.

In Ruth 1 we find a story with a tragic start and a very happy ending. If you were to remove the title and add this as another 4 chapters to the book of Judges it would fit it fine, but would change the tenor of Judges to have a much happier ending. This book is positive and highlights how good comes out of the bad, whereas the book of Judges doesn’t feel positive and ends on quite a down point. But which part of Judges does it fit in?

Judges span over 350 years from the death of Joshua in about 1381 BC to King Saul in about 1050 BC. Probably during the Judge period of Ehud or Shamgar because Boaz is the son of Rahab from the Jericho story in Joshua, but is now quite old. Ruth is from Moab. Moab was an enemy of Israel, who had oppressed them at the ti ...