Israel Demands a King

The judges still rule the land when hunger comes to Bethlehem. No rain falls. The fields turn brown and the crops die in the dust. A man named Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and their two sons and walks away from the empty land. They go to Moab, a foreign country, looking for food.

Years pass in Moab. The two sons grow up tall and marry Moabite women — one named Orpah, one named Ruth. They all live together under one roof. Naomi watches her sons build new lives here, far from home, far from the land of their people.

Then Elimelech dies. Naomi buries her husband in foreign ground. Years later, both sons die too. Three women stand alone — Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth. No husbands. No sons. No one to care for them. Nothing left but each other and the dust of Moab.

Ruth 1:1