Before entering the Book of Ruth, we must recognize that we are stepping into an ongoing covenant story — one that stretches back to creation and unfolds through Israel’s relationship with God. From the beginning, humanity’s relationship with God was covenantal, vocational, and land-centered, marked by the recurring pattern of covenant, breach, exile, preservation, and restoration. This pattern narrows through Abraham, expands into a nation through the Exodus, and is constitutionally defined at Sinai through Torah, with the land functioning as sacred covenant space. By the time we reach the period of the Judges, however, Israel’s covenant faithfulness has fractured, resulting in instability, famine, and social vulnerability. It is precisely within this context — a time of covenant crisis, land tension, threatened lineage, and national drift — that the story of Ruth begins, introducing a Moabite woman whose covenant loyalty will become instrumental in God’s ongoing work of preservation and restoration.

Ruth 1 opens during the time of the Judges, a period marked by covenant instability in Israel, and begins with a famine that drives Elimelech and his wife Naomi to leave Bethlehem and sojourn in Moab with their two sons. There, the sons marry Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah, but tragedy soon strikes — Elimelech and both sons die, leaving the three women widowed and vulnerable. Hearing that the LORD has “visited” His people and restored food to the land, Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem and urges her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab. Orpah tearfully departs, but Ruth clings to Naomi and makes a profound covenant declaration of loyalty to Naomi, her people, and her God. The chapter closes with Naomi — now calling herself “Mara” in bitterness — returning to Bethlehem with Ruth at the beginning of the barley harvest, signaling the first hint that restoration may be beginning.