“Back in the days when the judges were judging, at a time when there was a famine in the land, a certain man from Beit-Lechem went to live in the territory of Mo’av — he, his wife and his two sons.”-Ruth 1:1
Scholars often argue about when Ruth was written.
But there is zero argument about when the events took place.
We know Ruth occurred during the period of the Judges.
But that’s still very broad.
The question is during the period of which Judge?
Let’s take a look at the following verses from Judges chapter 6 because I think they give us a big clue.
“Whenever the Israelites planted their crops,
the Midianites, Amalekites and other
eastern peoples invaded the country.
They camped on the land and ruined
the crops all the way to Gaza and did
not spare a living thing for Israel,
neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.”
-Judges 6:3-4
So here we see that the marauding Midianites stole Israel’s food supply and destroyed the animals (because they couldn’t carry them off).
These raids occurred over and over again over a period of several years.
In other words, this was a man-made famine.
So when we combine mention of these raids with the first verse of Ruth which says…“Back in the days when the judges were judging, at a time when there was a famine in the land…“, I think we get the answer to our question.
The events of Ruth took place during the time when Gideon was judging Israel.
A lot of folks assume a famine was only caused by natural disasters or by some worldwide plague or something.
That wasn’t always the case.
Famines can be manmade disasters.
In fact, it even happens today when ruthless Islamic warlords will try to wipe out enemy tribes by cutting off their food supply.
Since we have zero record of a famine occurring in Canaan during the era of the Judges, what most likely happened is that Elimelech relocated his family to Moab in order to escape the “famine” cause by the raiding Midianites and Amalekites.
Over and out.
We could also work this backwards from King David, couldn’t we?
Ruth was David’s great-grandmother, so if we consider that childbearing occurred early for the people in those days, if a generation is (generally speaking) 20 years or so, that means Ruth existed sometime around 60 years before David was born.
Scholars believe David was born around 1040 BCE, and so Ruth was around 1100 BCE.
Now, when we also look up who was the judge around 1100 BCE, the scholars believe that was during the tome of the Ammonite opression, which would place it around 1125 to 1108, and Jephthah or Ibzan would have been the judges then. Gideon is placed at 1208 BCE, during (as you correctly point out) the Midianite oppression period. This is way too early for Ruth.
I believe the reference to “the famine” in Verse 6 was a general statement referring to the entire time that Israel was under judges, and not about a single point in time.
I agree with you that a famine can be man-made, but, respectfully, I think you have the wrong famine.
Ruth’s time was when the Ammonites were casuing the famine, not the Midianites, which places Jephthah or Ibzan as judge.
As I mentioned over the Facebook, great food for thought here Steven. Thanks!