Notes on Ruth—1:1

WTT Ruth 1:1 וַיְהִ֗י בִּימֵי֙ שְׁפֹ֣ט הַשֹּׁפְטִ֔ים וַיְהִ֥י רָעָ֖ב בָּאָ֑רֶץ וַיֵּ֙לֶךְ אִ֜ישׁ מִבֵּ֧ית לֶ֣חֶם יְהוּדָ֗ה לָגוּר֙ בִּשְׂדֵ֣י מוֹאָ֔ב ה֥וּא וְאִשְׁתּ֖וֹ וּשְׁנֵ֥י בָנָֽיו׃

Translation: And it happened in the days of the judging of the judges that there was a famine in the land. And a man from Bethlehem of Judah went to sojourn in the fields of Moab: he, and his wife, and his two sons.

Ruth is one of several books (the others being Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, Ezekiel, and Esther) beginning with (וַיְהִ֗י). Except for 1 Samuel, they all begin with a temporal clause, connecting the following events to a particular time. Here, the use of (וַיְהִ֗י) is doubled, indicating not only the time of the judges, but the time of a particular famine during that period.

(בִּימֵי֙ שְׁפֹ֣ט הַשֹּׁפְטִ֔ים) lit. “in the days of the judging of the judges.” The proposition + the infinitive + the [participial] noun is a standard construction for a temporal clause. Thus: “when the judges judged.”

(בִּשְׂדֵ֣י מוֹאָ֔ב) refers to the land of Moab. The phrase is used throughout Ruth and a couple of times in 1 Chronicles. Outside of those places it is usually (  אֶ֣רֶץ מוֹאָ֑ב).

(גוּר֙) usually has the sense of staying temporarily, even though the stay may be somewhat extended from our point of view.

“In the days of the judges” is intended to bring the reader to recall the generally dissolute practices of Israel during that period. Following both Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, the famine was an indicator of divine judgment. Thus the man (named in the next verse) takes his family, attempting to escape the judgment of God.